Day 3. Let's go flying
The Ventus C has been confirmed to turn up Saturday morning. So to get familiar with the local area we went for a flight in a syndicated Duo Discus. 30 members in the syndicate. An interesting approach.
To fly I'd have Colin, a syndicate member taking me for a flight. He also happens to be the person in charge of weighing all the aircraft. Today would be completely blue with temperatures around 40. We DI'ed the glider and got it ready in the hangar and the shade.
We started off by leaving the glider in the hangar and helping launch the grid. In 40 degree heat running ropes is a fun exercise in itself. Actually it's mostly walking the ropes.
Finally we launched, and flew north to get a feel for the area. There are some small hills running north from Benalla, and along them the thermals were good, reaching about 7000 feet. On the flat though was a different story with harder to work thermals, not going about 4500 or so. I suspect there was an inversion in place, and only the hills were creating thermals hot enough to punch through it.
Day 4. Swimming pool day.
Decided not to fly today. Could have hired a club glider, but it would have cost a few hundred dollars for a few hours. The Ventus would be arriving tomorrow, so instead we found the local swimming pools which were surprisingly devoid of people for a very hot day.
That evening we had a picnic outside the Swanpool Cinema, and 1950's style cinema 30 minutes south of Benalla.
www.swanpoolcinema.com.au
We saw a couple of very interesting musical documentaries including "Searching for Sugar Man" which was great.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searching_for_Sugar_Man
Glider turns up tomorrow...
