It
seemed rather late in the year for SW wind, but
there was enough of it on Friday morning to have the
crew (and all other traffic) line up on RWY24.
However the hope of the last bit of mountain wave
for the year did not materialise and after only
three launches we followed the wind to 12.
That
does not mean there was no lift around. Beautiful
and bountiful cumulus started filling the sky by
late morning and the thermals were so abundant
that Judith Smith flew GYK for 52 minutes to score
flight of the day on her annual check with duty
instructor Bob Turner. They had so much lift they
ended up doing a second sequence of stalls and
spins to chew up some height because they knew
others were waiting to use the glider!
We
were keen to get Shane Tuck and Ken Mitchell up in
GYK and CQC to get the hour-plus flights they’re
chasing, but the timing was just too late. Both
launching around midday, they could only get 20
and 30 minutes.
Meanwhile
I got 27 minutes with Ken’s teenage neighbour (a
birthday present from Ken) which would have been
longer if the lad had not started to feel queasy.
Bob
Hainsworth and Charles Hoch - returned from a long
absence overseas - scored fourth best flight at 23
minutes and it was all downhill from there. Barry
McCarthy and Ken Mitchell, on a thermal coaching
exercise, found only 18 minutes of lift, and when
Kevin Rodda arrived around two thirty with ES-Ka-6
GRV he could only find about 20 minutes in what
became a hangar flight.
Kevin
was late because he had chosen to give up his day
of flying to assist another of our stalwart Friday
flyers. He had earlier dropped in to the flight
line on the way from Wesley Hospital to Bribie
Island, giving John Nestor a lift home after some
serious surgery. John looked great despite still
wearing his hospital tag and we wish him a rapid
recovery at home with Anne.
The
day’s flying concluded by about three with a
significant hangar flight - Shane Tuck making his
first back seat launch with Tony Sorensen, having
concluded a big session in the quiet of Tony’s
car where he successfully passed the oral tests
for his C Certificate. Well done, Shane!
And the
most important pilots of all. ... without a tuggie
none of the rest of us would have flown, and the
Friday crew were fortunate to have three of them:
John Knox, Mike Grady and Karl Bodi.
Thanks
for your efforts, fellas!
The
day’s stats:
CQC
6 flights 2:15
GYK
3 flights 1:26
GRV
1 flight 0:19
