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From: Garrett Russell
Date: Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Subject: Chinchilla Update
To: cgcnews@groupspaces.com
UPDATE
FROM THE HIGHLANDERS FOR THE COASTAL LOCALS
Today should have been our fifth day of flying but was cancelled
because of blue conditions and one or two knot lift to 3,500
feet (2,500ft AGL). So the first highland lesson is that what
would be a pretty good little day at Caboolture is a
don’t get out of bed at Chinchilla. To press that point
further, world champ guru Bruce Taylor has just told the hastily
convened gliding seminar which replaced the day’s flying about
crossing the kilometre or so of a thermal structure’s width
before deciding where to look for the core. Clearly definitions
of lift vary somewhat with what side of the ranges you’re
flying!
The lay day provides the first pause in which to report on the
first four days – including practice day on Friday – which
have provided plenty of new experiences for the Caboolture
pilots involved.
First new experience was Tim Williams’ Thursday trip from
Gympie to Chinchilla with Kevin Roden in IKW, towed most of the
way by Steve Bowtell in SPA. They arrived a bit late for any
local soaring on the way in, but that did nothing to extinguish
the smile on Tim’s face.
Practice day on Friday saw Mick Moloney lining up in GJY for his
first solo competition task and Karl Bodi taking the front seat
in IKW for his first ever gliding competition. Karl’s first
lesson was learned before take off: that a can of fizzy drink is
NOT what you want in your hand luggage when you’re hoping to
go to 7,000 feet in an unpressurised cockpit!
Mick came home with a personal best 176.8 km at average 64 km/h
and a smile even bigger than Tim’s. Kevin and Karl also did
very well with a 5th place result – 209 kilometres at 82.7
km/h.
The competition officially opened on Saturday with David Higgs
and Alan Graham in the Caboolture hot seats and Tim Williams in
his second Twin Astir – IKC – from Bundaberg. Alan and Kevin
completed the day’s 3 hour task in 3:04, covering 248
kilometres at 80.6 km/h, while David made the hard decision to
abandon the task just 12 kilometres from home. No points on the
board but an important box ticked for his first solo outlanding.
Mick ticked that same box on Sunday in challenging blue
conditions which also saw several other outlandings. The
scarcity of lift caused Kevin Roden with Nathan Cornwell to
abandon the task in favour of a couple of hours local soaring.
No de-rigging for IKW but our boys did get
their first practice at lifting those heavy wings in a paddock
– off the aforementioned IKC!
Monday offered more of the same blue challenge at start time, so
much so that Mick and David decided to spend the day on their
scoring and IT duties rather than fly and IKW landed for a
relight after Neil Muspratt and Kevin had struggled for half an
hour at 900 feet AGL. However the day improved later to bring
our boys home from a second start at an average 83.9 km/h over
210 kilometres.
That’s the flying to date. The rest of the time has been just
as entertaining: ask Karl next time you see him what he was
doing to trigger his car alarm and wake the entire camping area
at one in the morning. And why the rest of us thought he was
auditioning for a part in Giggle and Hoot.
Ask any of our ground crew about the bird of prey which stalked
the rings on the end of the tow ropes for several launches.
And ask Mick about getting soaked trying to get the power back
on so the rest of us could enjoy dinner without candlelight in
the only rainy night we’re likely to see here – conditions
you’re probably much more familiar with down there at sea
level.
Garrett
for Team Caboolture, Chinchilla Airfield
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