It was
Friday – not much of a Friday – but we went
flying anyway on runway 12 under the gloomy sky
which we seem to encounter most Fridays lately and
we only took GYK out with us. And the van of
course.
Well
‘they’ did as I was a late starter today, but
they got started early with first launch at 0910
if I recall details correctly. My copy of the
flight sheet is missing that bit of info due to
our inability to get the printer to produce a
legible copy (out of ink).
First
launched were Tony Sorensen and Jessica Bellamy,
towed into the grey by Mike Grady in SPA. I
gathered cloud base was about 2500ft so few of the
rest of us were keen to fly. As a result, when
Jessica took a break, Jason Humrich organised a
check flight then a series of solos. As the
showers skirted the hills no one seemed to be in a
hurry to wrest GYK from them but, once a bit of
blue appeared to the east, and a few hopeful
clouds were imagined in the murk, interest mildly
increased.
Our crew
of Barry McCarthy, Arthur Mailey, Bob Hainsworth
and Ken Mitchell had been joined by David Higgs so
Barry commenced the task or organising us into
groups for at least one mutual each since
Jason’s times had improved to all of 19 minutes.
Cunningly, Bob Hainsworth allowed others to fly
before deciding he might give it a go and I joined
him, taking the empty seat in GYK, for longest
time of the day. Honours of the day must go to
Jason however for his persistence in launching
into the wind-blown turbulence and finding enough
lift to record that 19 mins from a launch to just
2200ft.
We
launched nine flights in all and all returned
safely so we claim it a successful day despite the
chill winds breaking up any sign of lift. Surely
it’s about time for weather to give us a break
and supply some recognisable winter days.
GYK’s
nine flights recorded 2 hours 21 which I did not
expect us to achieve when I drive through showers
to Caboolture this morning. Hopefully, the
Saturday crew may be able to out-do our efforts if
they find weather improving?
