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Friday
flying at last |
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19-Jul-15
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From: Robert
Hainsworth
Date:
Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 9:44 AM
Subject:
Friday flying at last
To:
cgcmem@mailmanlist.net.au
After
a bad run of Fridays everything came together
yesterday, albeit with a smaller than usual crew. Duty
instructor was Tony Sorensen, ably assisted by Barry
McCarthy and Garrett Russell, while John Knox and Mike
Grady flew the tug. John left his sidekick Pat at home
but gave his new pup Beau (or is it Bo?) another taste
of of airfield life. Ken Mitchell, having declared
himself 85% recovered from the effects of a "snot
sandwich" that laid him low courtesy of
grandchildren, turned up to fly after a few weeks
absence (during which he missed very little), and was
joined by Bob Hainsworth and Shane Tuck. That
completed the roll call, all the other regular Friday
attendees were AWOL, though doubtless all had good
excuses.
The
Blanik and IS30 were DI'd and walked out to 12, though
the wind was slight that 06 would have been fine.
Later in the day some of our power colleagues did
start to use 06, just to make our operations more
interesting, and we were visited by a military
chopper, apparently one of the latest types undergoing
testing after assembly here, anyway the pilot on the
radio was a yank.
The
Blanik was launched first so that Barry could have an
annual check flight with Tony, landing 15 minutes
later it sat dejectedly on the ground until it was
flown back to the tie down area by Barry and Shane at
the end of flying. Ken continued his conversion to the
IS30 by flying with Garrett, for 17 minutes, followed
by Shane with Barry for 24 minutes from 3300 feet.
Barry claimed that the timekeeper (moi) had cheated
him out of 2 minutes and challenged me to do better,
which I did by flying in the back seat with Tony for
25 minutes from 3000. Shane and Barry then went up
again and equaled our flight to share the honours for
the day, this time Garrett acted as timekeeper and
scrupulously included the use of the second hand on
his own watch!
The
day's flying ended with 3 1500 foot launches, one more
practice flight for Ken, a tie down flight and
practice in the back seat for me with Tony, and the
aforementioned tie down flight for the Blanik. These
final 3 flights were all kindly offered by the
respective instructors to be shared flights, may be to
save our tired old legs, or to encourage us to
contribute further to the club funds, anyway it was
much appreciated.
It
was a very enjoyable day, quite warm so that a few
outer layers were discarded, very welcome after the
last couple of weeks. While the lift was not strong
the flying was enjoyable with low clouds starting at
1500 feet and rising to 2000 by the afternoon, with
good space between them to allow access to the smooth
air above them. While rain was around it avoided the
field all day.
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Bob
Hainsworth
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for the
FRIDAY CREW
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