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Silly
Season Saturday
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24-Nov-12
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The
silly season officially started at the Pie Cart exactly one
month before Christmas Eve – Saturday 24 November – with
a festive day of flying for six Older & Bolder
passengers and a big party of other guests and members. In
the photo above Karl Bodi admirably displays the spirit of
the day, wearing the “Rudolph’s Flying School” thoughtfully supplied
by
him for
the
three AEI's
responsible for our passengers’ happiness
today
(Nathan Bowtell
had showed so much affection toward the same type of
cap that Kevin
Rodda had
at the field yesterday
that
it was eventually gifted to him).
From the smile
on O&B participant Jan Rose’s face, it was successful.
The only problem was adapting the rear canopies to
accommodate the headgear.
One tactic considered was to send the passengers up two at a
time while the AEIs stayed on the ground – but although
Leanda Robbins enjoyed her trial move to the back seat
behind other O&Ber Wendy Derrick, we went back to more
traditional operating procedures.
Kevin Rodda (behind
Suzanne Goldau)
scrunched his antlers under the perspex
...
... while Mike McCluskey simply had his cropped out of the
shot as he prepared to fly Uwe Goldau.
And Mr and Mrs Goldau appreciated the effort.
Bruce Bergholtz, the sixth O&B passenger, could be back.
A former air traffic controller and CPL, he enjoyed his
first taste of gliding so much, he left us wanting more!
Of course there were serious preparations to get CQC, GQA
and GYK ready for our guests and members. Notice the vacuum
cleaner and meticulously prepared sky?
Mike McCluskey even brought his wife Kym along in an effort
to disprove the generally held theory that Kym and lift have
never been observed at the same airfield together. Sad to
say that effort failed, with the O&B flights averaging
22 minutes. Mike managed only 19 minutes when he took Kym up
later and the two seater flight of the day was a 44 minute
solo for Kevin in GQA (although Bert and Speedy went further
afield for a hard fought few hours).
However Kym’s contributions to the festive spirit were
much more successful. Here Jo Wooler demonstrates
everyone’s appreciation for Kym’s sinfully delicious
chocolate cake and fruit mince tarts – and Jo also scored
the prize for most flights of the day (apart from sole
Tuggie Steve Chapman) with five launches including two solos
and an encounter with David Higgs’ itchy finger on the tow
release low down.
David followed the relatively sedate O&B flights with
aerobatic flights for two friends (Andrew Purcell pictured)
and more of the same with Duty Pilot Adam French
The festive spirit kicked on into the welcome shade of
Kevin’s hangar after 18 launches and 1:38, 1:46 and 2:05
in flight times for GYK, GQA and CQC. And thanks to Jo for
shouting this whole social circle!
Thanks also to the duty crew David Higgs, Karl Bodi, Steve
Chapman and Adam French plus volunteers Mick Moloney, Kevin
Rodda and Mike McCluskey for getting the silly season off to
such a great start.
Here’s to more 18 flight days as the holidays get under
way.
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Garrett
Russell
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Thanks
to David Higgs and Kevin Rodda for providing photos used in
the report above ...
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and
Mike McCluskey who contributed this wildlife study of two
feral reindeer (Karl
Bodi and Kevin Rodda) spotted
on Runway 06 ...
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At
least they’re less of a danger to aircraft than the
kangaroos!
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