No need
to fear incoming cloud today as we thawed in the
sun while unwrapping the gliders usually chosen by
the Friday crew - CQC and JY. The ‘we’ were
Tony Sorensen our L2 supervising John Nestor, Bob
Hainsworth, Ken Mitchell who chose not to fly,
Arthur Mailey and me with Bob Turner rigging his
Libelle, CP, nearby and John Knox and Pat watching
our progress. As usual John was in command of SPA
which was already ‘ready to roll’. Karl Bodi
arrived once we had set up and started our day on
runway 12 intending to have a flying day in a
glider not the tug.
A brief
visit by Steve Bowtell and an introduction to Tor,
a new tuggie who was to take over once John
finished his shift almost completed the complement
of faces at the tie-down area. For once in quite a
while, Garrett Russell was not on stand-by as an
instructor but he checked in to make sure we were
all organised and ready to get gliders , etc to
the launch point. Thanks to Steve and Garrett for
coming in to check all was under control. I must
apologise to Tor for not recording his surname.
Could someone please fill that in for me.
The
birds flapping back to their perches after aborted
attempts at climbing in the pathetic thermals on
offer did not encourage any great rush to launch
early. Most of us sought what shade was on offer
once the sun crept under the awning of the van and
made sitting there a tad warm. At least there we
could entertain ourselves chatting and passing
judgement on the light traffic on the field.
John
Nestor had possibly the only reason to take early
flights with Tony in CQC before he was sent off
solo for a flight on his own in CQC.
Congratulations from us all go to you John.
It is
possibly best that I omit mention of the flight
times in case they spook anyone thinking of flying
tomorrow. All I wish to say is that Karl scored
the best flight of the day at 40 minutes in a
hangar flight in GJY. He spent a long time
avoiding having to join circuit by hanging about
over the industrial area while we packed up and
put CQC to bed. The clear sky meant that the
scenery was picture perfect if only we had time to
look at it.
Maybe
the observation that I entered 1.03 for four
flights in CQC’s maintenance release and 58
minutes in JY’s book indicate what sort of day
it was. We did much better on Monday so maybe
it’s a Friday thing. And maybe, things will be
much better tomorrow. Good luck to the Saturday
crew.
