Well - what a difference a week makes! 3 out of 3 flying days ..... that’s a turnup for the books - and great to see so many out to take advantage of it.
Iggy submitted his Wednesday cameo as follows:
It was a calm, clear day with some weak thermals to a low cloudbase at 2000 feet. Bill was welded in the back seat of PC for four flights with Peter Minor, Carl Henderson, and Neil Raymond. They were shaking the moths out of their logbooks which they apparently managed to Bill’s satisfaction, after which Peter did a second tow, this time to 3000 feet, and was run through spiral dive recovery. He subsequently managed to work the weak thermals to have an extended flight. Carl took WW up for an airing but was not so lucky with the thermals. Paul Knight took VM for a flight and stayed aloft for sometime. Carl and Neil reckon that it was just the performance of the Discus, or possibly the motor, that gave Paul the longer flight. I think that BZA was the only one that burnt any fuel.
Thanks Iggy!
To Saturday now, (and further thanks to Steve Care for taking the time to fold, copy, scan and email the time sheet to enable me to receive the data). 16 Flights for the day, some brief others 2 hours plus and 2 trial flights to kick the day off. In order of appearance the stars of the show were:
Tim Bromhead, Edouard Devonoges, Ralph Gore, Keith Irvine, Alan Belworthy, Peter Minor, Steven Care, David Muckle, Carl Henderson, Will Kamp, Dennis Crequer & June Ritting. Julian and Dom provided the instructorial services; pulling aloft was Scott Jeanes and womanning the books was June (well if you can man the books ….. I take literary licence!). A great day was had by all apparently, in 2 - 4 knot thermals fairly close to home, peaking in performance in the 1 - 3pm time band. Well done to all who came out for the day.
Having transcribed the day sheet onto the computer could I point out to ALL that we must record take-off and landing time of privately owned gliders as well as club gliders. IT IS MANDATORY THAT WE SUBMIT ALL GLIDER FLYING HOURS TO GNZ, SO THEY MUST BE RECORDED. Private owners, you can help by checking your time has been recorded when you pay for your tow. Thanks team!
Sunday held great promise when viewed heading east on the Tahuna highway at 10:30 but by arrival at 11 it had broken up and high cloud began filtering in from the North which started to fill in the blue hole overhead the field. However Tim got a couple of trial flights away in PK then took a mate up, which opened proceedings. PC had been DI’d and was sitting in front of the hangar awaiting the arrival of Julian for a BFR. However, Jamie Pirritt swung by with family and Gump, spotted PC and DI’d it again (wrong page in the book!) then towed it to the 28 launch point. Much to-ing and fro-ing followed as every nook and cranny was searched attempting to locate a missing ballast weight (left in GS last weekend as it transpired). In a fit of pique at all this attention and not being flown, PC decided to own the day by sighing and collapsing onto a dead flat main wheel right under our noses!. More to-ing and fro-ing to find a replacement tube that didn’t exist, pick up the flash hydraulic engine lifting device and a couple of strops to hopefully lift the stricken beast and drop the wheel out for repair, plus fill the compressor and drag that down for the much needed fill..
The plan worked, providing an afternoons entertainment for a team of willing mechanics who played a wonderful game of one-upsmanship by producing, at a moments notice, a tool that was absolutely necessary but seemed unlikely to be found. My basic kit was gazumped by Godrey’s far superior socket set, Steve produced a puncture repair kit when it was found that no spare tube was available, Bob just happened to have an Allen key tool, Carl produced a tyre pressure gauge, and apologies to any one I missed! Things would have gone better had I not got the port side spacer in the wrong place during re-assembly, but in the end it all came together nicely just in time to be towed back to the hangar!
Julian did his BFR, and took a certain to be new member, Harn for his first flight, Jamie got the kids airborne, Carl got some boxes ticked off. PC got DI’d twice and never flew and a large team of us that didn’t actually fly had an enjoyable afternoon! Godfrey managed the paperwork and Dave Harding added 7 launches to his tally in BZA. A bit more than just a lazy day at the airfield, and proof that you don’t actually need to fly to have fun at a gliding club. Lets hope the puncture repair holds out long enough for the new tyre and tube to arrive.
Keep a lookout for a couple of new members as a result of this weekends flying – just what we need at the start of the season – speaking of which REMINDER – SEASON OPENING EVENT SAT. 8th September 10:00am –and yes, there is such a thing as a FREE LUNCH!!
