What’s the best way for a pilot to spend a day that comes along once every four years?

Yep, that’s just what Barry McCarthy, Judith Smith, Bob Turner and I did on Wednesday 29 February.
Judith introduced us to Gympie Soaring Club’s regular Wednesday operations for Bob to initiate Barry and me into the mysteries of leaving the ground at a 45 degree angle via winch launch.

What a rush that is!

Barry and I had three launches each in Gympie’s newly restored ASK-21. We got some soaring and high level launch failure practice into our last flights, by which time we were becoming used to climbing with nothing but atmosphere visible over the nose – and I actually drove the winch for Barry’s last launch. Under instruction, of course, but with an adrenaline level at least as high as on my first time at the other end of the rope!

Meanwhile Judith went off cross country in our cross-hired Twin Astir. She and Gympie CFI Steve came back from a long flight with a spectacular competition finish which sealed the day nicely. 

Good weather played a big part in what was a great day, and it seems that YCAB will have pretty similar weather for most if not all this weekend. So forget about last week’s wet, wet woes and get out to the field for the first great post-Summer flying!

Garrett