So much has happened since the last update it’s difficult to know where to start. We have had the occasional ridge day with flights as far as Coromandel. I even attempted to make it as far as Thames only to end up in a paddock near Hikutaia, a rookie retrieve crew was summoned from their afternoon nap & proved to be extremely capable.
The SOSB was informative & well attended by around 40 club pilots & one or two visiting pilots (or were they only in for one of Jan’s free lunches?). Look out for the briefing notes to be posted on the website soon as there really was so much food for thought to be taken in at one sitting. Thanks Jan & Joan for organising lunch & putting up with such a ravenous, unruly bunch.
Briefing completed & lunch eaten happened to coincide with a clearing sky & very light winds so it wasn’t a difficult decision to empty the hangar & commit some aviation. NI was rigged in no time as the winch was wheeled into position & gliders towed to the launch point. The buckets were all in a row down the runway & don’t forget BZA, Tracey had her ready for action. Seventeen flights of varying length were had & I believe Bill even got to try out his little box of toys in order to repair a damaged winch rope. Down at the winch end new president Iggy was spotted nodding in approval along with Fin.
On the subject of the winch, we all need to be aware that we as a club are not particularly current with the operation. We do not have very many current pilots or winch drivers and the working out of other procedures will take time to make the operation run as smoothly as possible. So the committee asks that you be patient as more winch drivers are trained & pilots/instructors get the required currency and please help out where possible as we make the most of a fantastic piece of kit.
Sunday started with an extremely early morning getting up at 4am to watch the ABs beat South Africa. Well worth the effort of dragging myself out of bed. The hangar was opened & emptied of its contents. Steve needed a hand to rig VC which after her visit to Auckland no longer goes round in circles. Nobody was keen to fly as the low cloud slowly burned off so it was off to the clubhouse for lunch & coffee & talk s*#t (oops I mean important flying stuff). Eventually the sun came out & Dom found a passenger so the day sprang into action. Four flights for the day made it quite easy for the duty pilot to take up the offer of a flight in YL with Steve. It was great to see the sun out & it was challenging to stay up with the thermals being very weak. It can only get better from here.
Before I sign off I want to remind you of some of the events happening in October. We have the instructors’ course this weekend followed by a High School group on the 15th & 17th. If you can help with the working bee weekend on the 19th or 20th or even both days that would be awesome as some general tidying is overdue & it would make the summer that little bit more enjoyable with everything tidy & in its place. Then Labour Weekend is looking great with Youth Glide joining us along with Aviation Sports from Auckland. Contact any of the committee if you can help in any way.
Cheers,
DM
