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Windy
day on RWY24 |
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From: Nicholas Sheahon
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2015 23:01:30 +1000
Subject: Windy Day on RWY 24
To: cgcmem@mailmanlist.net.au
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With a large number of AEFs booked in for today, the duty crew were all bright and early to the field this morning. Mick Moloney (Duty Instructor), Lindsay Mitchell and Mike McCluskey (AEFs), Neil Schaefer (Tuggie), Garrett Russell and myself (Duty Pilots) began getting things ready under a completely blue sky while a few powered pilots tried some serious crosswind circuits on runway 30. There was little doubt that we were going to setup on 24, our only doubt was whether our guests would still be keen to fly in conditions which were forecast to gust to 30 knots. Well they were, and they
were also there good and early ... so following a little bit of scheduled maintenance on IKW, we had the first flight away by 10:30am.
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An
early indication of the conditions
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Group
photo with WXX on finals
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We were also joined
at the flight line by David Higgs, Tony Sorenson, Rupert Perry and Chris Weir
(who even unwrapped the Libelle at one stage and contemplated looking for some
wave). Oh, and we cannot forget Loki was there too. Certainly the guests knew Loki was there and he made great friends with them all day.
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Loki
making friends while his dad entertains the guests
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Lindsay was in charge of the Twin
Astir and Mike McCluskey had the Blanik ... between the two pilots and aircraft, they had completed the six passenger flights just before 1pm. They were all pretty short flights (just under 20 mins) with the pilots searching for the wave that we knew must have been there, but Lindsay cracked it with the last passenger with a 43 minute flight which took flight of the day.
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Lindsay
Mitchell briefing Gail Jack
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Mike
McCluskey with Inta Ferguson
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From there it was up to the members to get the aircraft down the other end of the runway with 'tie down' flights and this task was given to David and Garrett in the Blanik and to Tony and Chris in the Twin. The Twin was last to land just before 2pm with a very respectable 35 mins and, while they found the wave, it was described as 'very narrow'.
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Twin
Astir IKW on late finals for RWY24
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Stats for the day were as follows:
GYK 4 flights for 1 hour 19 minutes
IKW 4 flights for 1 hour 53 minutes
Bert Persson also managed a couple of hours in his self launcher, but of course, that was all in the one flight.
At the end of the day, Lindsay and I assisted the owner of a lovely Tiger Moth who was having trouble getting back to his hanger in the strong winds. We walked the wings to what must have been the
furthest hanger on the airfield and he was very appreciative
of our assistance.
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Ray
and his Tiger Moth back at the hangar.
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Following that we all went to the
Complete Aircraft Care hangar where Speedy had been working on QA, and turned it over, so he can start work on the bottom. Thanks again Speedy for another day working in the
hangar !!
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All
hands on deck to flip the IS-30 (Quebec Alpha)
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All in all, a very good day considering the conditions and it was great to see a large group of guests enjoy their day at the airfield.
Fingers crossed for more cu's and thermals and a little less wind in coming weekends.
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Happy Landings,
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Nick Sheahon
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DUTY
PILOT
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