Most members no doubt looked at the sky yesterday morning and decided it would not be a soaring day. And they were right.

However 8/8 cloud and rain on the radar was not enough to deter my duty crew – L1 Mark Thompson, Tuggie Mike Grady and Duty Pilot Alan Graham – from coming out to sniff the sky at Caboolture. Volunteer AEI Kevin Rodda was on standby from 0730 but with no passengers was not required to join us. 

Confirming that the rain had faded away, the field was dry enough for safe operations and that the grey and mostly traffic-free sky was ideally calm for training, we got the Blanik ready for the one other member we knew we could rely on to be there. David Crocker honoured the pledge he made when he joined up on Friday and arrived for his third consecutive day of flight training come rain, hail, hell or high water.

What followed was a leisurely day of five flights – a check flight for Alan and training flight numbers six, seven, eight and nine for David. He made good progress thanks to the calm conditions and some overnight reading of a borrowed copy of Basic Gliding Knowledge, and went home with another 1:14 to write in his log book. (But sorry, Kevin, no photos for the website!)

Add Alan’s check flight and you have a neat 1:30 for the day’s total flying, all achieved between first launch at 0946 and last landing at 1435. Obviously we had plenty of capacity for other pre-solo pilots to enjoy the ideal training conditions, if only they had come out.

That concludes flying for September, a month marred by tug unavailability and the inconvenience of having a tow car stolen. October should see a big improvement with warmer flying weather, a full flight line including the Club Libelle, and hopefully a new tow vehicle. All it needs is for you to come out and fly!

 

Garrett Russell