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Murphy's
Law Saturday |
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26-Sep-15
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With the weather
forecast on Thursday night suggesting wet weather
through to Sunday and a sunny Monday followed by about
a week of rain, it was surprising to read that CGC had
such a big day yesterday ... and an even bigger
surprise to see a "soarable-looking" shy
above Caboolture at around 9.00 am this
morning.
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The Duty Crew of David
Higgs (Duty Instructor), Tony Esler (Tug Pilot), Kevin
Rodda (AEI) and Alan Graham (Duty Pilot) had no
trainees or other members to arrange flights for but
the chance of one Air Experience passenger at 11.00 am
(doubtful and unconfirmed due to the weather
outlook).
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Murphy's law was in
full swing (anything that can go wrong will go wrong).
The plan was for Alan to do his annual flight review
in the IS-30 (long legs and the Blanik are not the
best of combinations). David and Alan barely had the
IS-130 ready to go when they took a phone call from
Rod Wilson ... you guessed it, Rod wanted to fly a
friend in the Blanik! The Blanik was then made ready
to go.
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Alan then detected
(when putting the dolly on the IS-30 to tow it out)
that its tail wheel was rubbing against its housing
and was therefore not turning as easily as it should
be!
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David, Alan and Tony
headed to RWY12 with the Blanik (GYK) and the tug
(SPA) while I stayed back at the tie-down area to
remove the tail wheel on the IS-30 to investigate the problem.
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Things improved rapidly
however when I was able to address the problem by
deflating the tyre, remove the wheel, reposition the
tyre on the wheel hub, re-inflate the tyre (with less pressure) and then
re-fit the wheel to GQA.
Even more luck came
our way when, with
impeccable timing, Speedy (Bernie Gonsalves) dropped
in to the airfield to pick up some materials for some work
that he
was doing at home. A valuable and much appreciated
second opinion to confirm my assessment that the
wheel and tyre were now OK for use but need to be
replaced soon for optimum ongoing
operation.
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Rod
Wilson and friend Campbell McClennan.
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By the time of our
first launch at 11:07, the sky looked quite inviting
... but with a strong wind coming in from the
south-east, it looked like there would be only a one
or two hour window of opportunity before the clouds
drifted away to the
north-west.
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David
Higgs and Kevin Rodda.
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The result was only
four flights (with two fights in each glider) and both
gliders landed back on RW06 to end the day's operations
by 12:30 ...
Rod Wilson with friend Campbell McLennan
in GYK (15 mins from 3000ft), Alan Graham's Annual
Flight Review in GQA with David Higgs (15 mins from
3500ft), Kevin Rodda solo in GYK (24 minutes from
3400ft) and David Higgs solo in GQA (20 mins from
3500ft).
There were some bumps of thermal activity,
however it was difficult to get even a full circle of
lift.
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Alan
Graham checking out the deteriorating weather.
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From then on, the
weather deteriorated rapidly. As I left the airfield
at around 2:30 the windsock was still straight down 12
and the clouds downwind to the north-west were
starting to look more threatening
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... and
looking back along RWY06 from the gate, rain was starting to fall on
the hills to the west of Caboolture ...
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Fifteen
minutes down the highway towards Brisbane it was
raining ...
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The rain
had cleared before North Lakes ... but as I headed in to
Brisbane over the Pine River Bridge, storm clouds were
again the feature of the western shy.
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Regards,
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Kevin Rodda
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