28 & 29 December

Flew Dad back to Cowra on Saturday - grey and overcast but uneventful flight. No flying at Keepit that day. Flew back to Keepit on Sunday morning, very humid with a lot of cu, but very low cloudbase.

Some gliders were flying, most landed quite early  - about 2 pm. I pulled the Mosquito out of the hangar and look a launch at about 4 pm. The couldbase had gone up to about 6000ft, and there were some good streets. Heard Nick Singer at Barraba so decided to head that way. We met near a cloud both the same height coming from opposite directions - flarms helped! Then we flew together out past Split Rock Dam along a good cloud street. Turned back for Keepit about 70 km out, but ran out of clouds about 40km out. Looked for a while like we might have to land at Jack Gaineys as a storm had killed everything around Keepit. However we stayed in the air long enough for the sun to heat the ground again, and the thermals started again, so we got back!

Monday - we have a lot of members at the club, and two students this week. Todays weather was very hot and humid again, with a lot of showers about. Eventually storms built up all around and we had to stop. Managed six training flights, and at least four gliders soared beneath one of the storms - but reportedly the lift wasn't much good.

The grass on the runway is growing amazingly quickly. We still have not had another steady downpour to test the roof repair. 

Hopefully tomorrow with be a better day for the cross country pilots.

25th December

Opened present from club - very nice thank you all very much.

Started preparing Christmas lunch for Dad, but looked as if it was going to be a good day. Gerhard and Robin going flying. Turned oven off, and delayed lunch until evening, got glider out. All a bit of a rush, but launched just after Gerhard. Managed to fly 430 km, Barraba, Bingara, Moree, Keytaa and and back to Lake Keepit. Excellent day.

Then finished cooking Christmas dinner! Excellent day.

Many thanks to Juho for towing us up on Christmas day. Much appreciated.

24th December

Lots of rain yesterday. Overcast this morning but brightened up later. Juho Gerhard and I up on the flight centre roof unblocking gutters. Gerhard had a theory about where the water is coming in, but we were fresh out of silastic. I went in to Gunnedah to get some more, will he had Juho moved the airconditioner and prepared the surface.

When I got back they used silastic and flashing to block up the hole and then put the airconditioner back.

About 5.30 I got my glider out and took a launch to test the total energy. Managed to soar for about 1.5 hours, very light lift.

Very hopeful that the flight centre leak is now fixed - but wont know till it rains again!

Monday 22 December

Flew home to Cowra on Saturday - head wind, but lots of good cloud streets to fly along - thought it must have been good for the gliders. Tim brought out his father and father in law, and also wife and daughter.  Sunday was a good day too, good XC flights by Gerhard, Jay Anderson and Garry (all on OLC). They were the only ones who flew. Gerhard had a decent sort of XC flight on Saturday too.

Flew back to LKSC on Monday mornng with my Dad - he's spending Christmas up here with me this year. Nice smooth flight, no thermals at all so I thought it would be a rather stable day, however the clouds started popping around 1 pm. Geoff Neely returned to the air in style with an out and return almost to Coonabarabran. I must steal his flarm and put it on the OLC.

Juho spent the day on the tractor mowing the strip and around the cabins. Hes also been very busy lavishing care and attention on the tug, cleaning and waxing it. Gerhard helped me to fix the total energy problem on my glider (I hope) and I helped him with how to program a task into his logger, and post on the OLC. 

Very quiet at the moment - I suppose everyone doing their Christmas Stuff!

Friday 19 December

Not such a good cross country day but quite soarable. After the storms yesterday, the wind turned westerly, and not many clouds - at least not close to the airfield. 

Nigel did two more solos in the morning before the wind got up, then we had a break while Gerhard and Dave Turner launched. We called a task Barraba, Tambar Springs and back, but in the end, no one attempted it.

Over lunch I did the A certificate questions with Nigel, and then did a check flight with him in the crosswind conditions - which he handled well, so I sent him solo again. So now he has his A certificate - at least he will have when he sends the form off. Well done Nigel.

Nigel  joined the club as a full member last year, and lives in Sydney. He's promised not to leave it so long before he comes back to the club to start on his B certificate. Watch out for his name in Australian Gliding.

Gerhard managed to climb to 7000ft, and soar for 3 hours, but didn't go cross country. Dave climbed to 6200, and set off to the west but got sunk out and returned to the field. Later in the day, Nigel managed a climb to 6000 feet and was able to soar for 1/2 hour.

Thursday 18 December

The forecast and the actual weather seemed to match up, but the pressure chart was indicating less wind.

As the wind was strong and gusty, not really suitable for Nigel to fly solo again, we took the Grob out for him to get some experience in a fibreglass glider. The lift was very good - cloudbase around 7000ft. Dave Turner flew his hornet also, and Matthew Minter took the LS6 for a whirl early in the morning.

Thunderstorms started to build all around us, and we landed before they closed right in. Just after we got everything put away, a really wild storm hit. Visibility was about 10 ft, and the wind and rain were really wild. Branches are down all over the place, and of course water came pouring in through the roof - as it does! Luckily the branches seem to have missed vehicles caravans buildings etc, so there was no damage.

Robin Nigel and Patricia worked on clearing away as much of the small stuff as they could. 

I any members own a chain saw, it would be appreciated if they could bring it here and cut up the branches so we can clear them out of the way.

Wednesday 17 December

An excellent day.  Light northwesterly winds, and cumulus.  I didn't think there would be clouds judging by the aviation forecast, so we called a modest 300km task, Splitrock, Premer, Manilla Lake Keepit, with 20 km circles around splitrock and Manilla, 40 km around Premer. 308 km point to point.

Garry Speight flew in his twin astir and invited Patricia Healy to accompany him, which she accepted. Dave Turner, (Hornet GMZ) Gerhard Stuck (Jantar 2 UKU), Ray Tilley (ASW27 RT), John Hoye (LS6 KYL), Ian Barraclough (Grob 103 GFP) and John Wakefield (Jantar 2 IZV) flew and most attempted the task. Most of the flights have been posted on the OLC. Garry and Patricia flew 335 km and John Hoye 350km. Ray had a good flight too, but seems to have misplace the lead for downloading his logger!

Meanwhile Nigel and I did some soaring practice, some emergencies, culminating in him going solo at the end of the day. He had two successful solo flights, but I am in trouble with Patricia for sending him off before she got back to film the event!

An amusing thing happened on one of my flights with Nigel - I had arranged with Juho that if I clicked the radio mike a couple of times, it meant he was to wave us off. During one flight, someone came though loudly on the radio, said he could hear everything clearly. Thinking the mike must have been stuck on (stupid because wouldn't have heard anything if it had been) I pressed the button a couple of times to unstick it and guess what! We got waved off! Not a problem, but usually its only supposed to be the student that's surprised!

Anyway we all had a great day, followed by a good yarn under the shade sail in the evening, with Champagne to celebrate Nigel's solo flight.

Tuesday 16 December

Garry came out again to fly the 185.

The prognostications from the blipmaps indicated good thermals rising to 9000ft later in the afternoon, but no cloud.

It was already working well by the time Nigel and I launched at about 11.30. Ray Tilley turned up and returned the Junior - fixed. Thank you so much Ray. He also went flying - disappearing for 4 hours and 56 minutes. However he wouldn't tell me where he went - I'll get it out of him tomorrow!

Ken Flower turned up and I pursuaded him that it would be a nice trip to fly to Armidale in his Grob 109, and did he have room for a tug pilot on board? Ken dropped Juho off at Armidal to bring the tug back after its 100 hourly. He said they got one good climb to about 6000ft but used the motor the rest of the way. Ken said he stopped for 2 thermals on the way back.

We had a bit of a drama when Juho took off in the Callair to fly back - no airspeed! He landed again but found all the Superair people had gone, Ken had gone so he was stranded in Armidale. Fortunately he stumbled across Brad Edwards who happened to be at the airport, and he was able to contact one of the Superair mechanics, who swiftly solved the problem. Many thanks to Brad for sorting this one out.

Juho flew back without further incident, and our tug has a new 100 hourly. Its all good!

The rumour is that a few of the locals are coming out to fly tomorrow (Wednesday) and Dave Turner, Ray Tilley and Gerhard will be going places too. Garry is planning weather permitting to fly with Patricia on a cross country.

Monday 15th December

A pleasant sunny day with good thermals, but a stiffish south westerly wind exactly 90 degrees across the main runway. Nigel Holmes returned to the club to try and complete his pre solo training with Patricia Homes, who we are trying to persuade to learn to fly, but she insists on only being a passenger!

First on the agenda was flying the tug to Armidale for its 100 hourly. Juho did this, despite a low cloudbase. He stayed in Armidale for the day assisting with the plane, and I flew over in the Jabiru after we had finished gliding to fetch him back.

Garry came over to tow in Ian Barracloughs 185 while our tug was away.

I did several flights with Nigel and Patricia had a soaring flight with Gerhard in the Grob 103.

The cloudbase lifted considerably during the day and there were some good thermals, but there was quite a bit of sink in between.

Friday 12 December

Rain, Rain and yet more rain. Unable to get home for the weekend once again. Its making the grass on the runway grow really fast.

Thursday 11 December

Not much flying today. Flynn had a mishap with the Junior - on the ground not in the air. He was very annoyed with himself. However Ray Tilley was on site, and concluded that he could repair it. I managaged to complete the trailer registrations and the Junior was derigged and Ray took it back to Armidale. Later on Robin and Flynn flew together in the Grob, but were unable to go cross country. No one else flew. I went into Tamworth for another failed attempt to re-register the LS6 trailer. I don't know why the RTA make it so hard to pay a tax!

Wednesday 10 December

Another Ok sort of day - but rather humid in the morning and storms forecast for the afternoon. I had a visitor with a gift voucher who came out in the morning, along with his uncle and son. I flew the uncle and son, but ran out of time to fly other chap as they had to go to Somerton for a meeting in the afternoon. Garry flew in his Twin Astir with John Trezise, and they flew the task that we had set in the morning, but no one else attempted it. We had a few relights - conditions were not so easy. After lunch, I found we had some more visitors and I did another two trial instructional flights. There was a huge thunderstorm over Tamworth at this time, and storms were rumbling around the field, but they appeared to be clearing up, so we launched anyway and found good lift.

The weather cleared up so I was looking around for someone to fly the Grob back to the hangar. Flynn had been helping with running the wing for the passenger flights, so I asked him if he would like the job. He accepted, but as it was a long time since he had flown a Twin Astir, I thought it might be best if I accompanied him. Just to make life interesting, I sat in the front and he in the back. It was a strange but interesting flight weather wise - some turbulence and a 180 degree wind change while we were in the air.

Tuesday 9 December

Tuesday was a really good cross country day. Garry was not available to fly with John Trezise, so I stood in. Steve Hedley flew with John Hoye in the Nimbus. We called a task to Manilla (20km) Gurley (40 km) Mullaley (40 km) - about 380 km point to point. Flynn flew the Junior again, but just local - he hasn't done outlanding cheques yet.

The day was quite good, but not all that easy. Not all the clouds were working, there was a north westerly wind about 10 kts, and cirrus came over to the north. John and I in the Grob twin 2 had a close shave near Mt Borah, came very close to landing in a paddock, but managed to climb away over some chicken sheds eventually. At this point, Steve and John in the nimbus 3 overtook us - not exactly unexpected! We continued to the north to the west of Mt Kaputar, and just clipped the 40km circle around Gurley and turned back. Then we had another struggle in the valleys in front of Kaputar but eventually managed to climb back up near cloud base, and worked out that we had final glide. We did consider going back via Gunneday to complete the task - the clouds were still working in that area, but we decided to call it a day and go home while we still could. 257 km, in five hours!

Meanwhile Steve and John did the same as us, just clipping the circle around Gurley, but then they headed for Mullaley. Conditions were good in that area, so they continued on to Spring ridge before turning for home. They had a bit of a struggle on the way back, but returned to Keepit OK. They did about 450km for the day - a really good effort. The flights are posted on the OLC.

Monday 8 December

Flew back from Cowra - departed in beautiful sunshine,  but things got "interesting" at about Wellington. Had to make a large diversion around a storm, got some good lift near it even in the Jabiru. No large sparks and no turbulence though fortuneatly.

Flynn flew the Junior and Garry came out to fly with John Trezise in Garry's twin Astir. John felt he needed some XC training. Steve Hedley was there to fly the nimbus 3, and also Alan Paulsen to fly his hornet, but thought better of it once the storm built up. Rain stopped play, so we packed up.

Ops Sunday 7 December - by Peter Shiels

Sunday morning weather did not look very promising and in fact I left Tamworth with light rain falling and overcast skies.

 

Arriving at LK, conditions were a little better but not brilliant.

 

Matthew Minter and his brand new wife, Li Ling were staying overnight (following their electrical fire in their electrical car - but now repaired) and were ready to fly. Also on deck were Bob Emery, John Stewart and visiting member Greg Dennis from Mt Isa (Dennis had been on the safari with Ross Edwards). 18 yr old Belgian visitor Flynn had arrived on Friday night and had been checked on Saturday by Trevor West and was ready to fly solo.

 

Flynn had caused a bit of a stir the previous night when he failed to return after a walk to the kiosk at 6pm. After some seaches by Robin and Matthew, Flynn was finally found at 11pm. Seems he missed the turn off to the club and continued walking north along the fringe of the dam. He had managed to walk back to the kiosk and met up with some people who finally managed to find the Gliding Club.Fortunately he was none the worse for his experience and was keen to fly.

 

With Juho in the tug, operations commenced under the overcast conditions, however, Matthew Minter managed to stay aloft and when Flynn launched solo in the Puchatek, he too stayed aloft for an hour. This provoked Greg Dennis, John Stewart and Bob Emery to launch and with the weather improving, they were able to thermal away.

 

Flynn landed after about an hour but decided to try again but with some over development, the thermals began to shut down. John, Bob, Greg  & Flynn all arrived back with minutes of each other. We then decided to halt ops for lunch.

 

After lunch, conditions looked a little better. John Stewart took another launch and I sent Flynn off in the Jantar Junior. About this time the weather really improved and by 4pm, the skies looked really good. Flynn landed after about an hour and Greg launched again in the junior for another 1 3/4 hrs. 

 

We finished the day with 12 launches.

 

Peter Sheils

Saturday - by Robin Walker

Hello people,
 
Weather today was not very enticing with  a very few people here to fly. We have a young pilot visiting from Belguim who got the privilage to fly with Trevor West. Greg Dennis decided to do a check flight with Trevor too.
 
Christian took a  tow and came down again .
 
Flying finished early and we were set for a nice quiet night. Flynn, our visitor decided to go for a walk around the lake at 6pm. At 9pm no sign of him.
 
So Juho and I decided we better go look for him, drove around to the Kiosk and checked any parties and groups, then back around to the north end of the lake, back to the kiosk, back to the north end again, drove around all the little tracks.
 
Finally found someone that had seen him over an hour before on the track to  the side of the lake north end of field, gave him directions to the toilet block and to the club, missed the club and ended up over near the kiosk, mean while we did another trip to the kiosk and another trip around the north end of the field.
 
Lucky he got picked up by some people we had talked to so they drove him from the kiosk to the club, but they got lost and had to ask for directions too.
 
proves that visitors can get lost we need to be careful,
 
Robin

Friday 5 December

Another rather ordinary day, somewhat overcast. We thought there might have been some thermals under the overcast, but there was not a lot.

Rod Hepburn, back to gliding after a break of 10 years or so, made the transition from Junior yesterday to Jantar Standard today. After landing he left to go back home to Kuranda in far North Qld. Rod is interested in resurrecting the gliding club at Mareeba. He is an instructor of Student aircraft maintenence engineers, and looking out for a "project" two seater for the students to learn on, and to get the gliding club going.

Another pilot, Michael, from Broken Hill came along for a couple of instructional flights. Michael is a member of Waikerie club, but hadn't flown for a couple of years. We were unable to soar unfortunately.

As the weather was fairly ordinary for gliding, but quite good for power flying, I managed to get most of my jobs done in time to jump into the Jabiru and fly home to Cowra. Arrived just after sunset, but before last llight!

Thursday 4 December

Hi Everyone

Today was a rather poorer day than we might have expected from the forecast. The sky was blue, and no storms forcast, light winds but no cu. We called a 300 km task, Mullaley, Bellata, Lake Keepit, but in the end no one ventured far from the field.  Todd Clark, Chris Carr, John Hoye, John Wakefield, Geoff Neely and Rod Hepburn (from Kuranda in QLD) flew. All the club gliders except the Puchatek flew today, but unfortunately not for long. The conditions were not easy - there were wave clouds about, and maybe the wave surpressed the lift in the Lake Keepit vicinity.

The Keepit Safari crew decided to head for home a day early, and flew in from Moree. Garry Speight and Ross Duncan in the twin astir managed to climb to 7000 after launching at Moree, and trickled to Lake Keepit after closely inspecting the airports at Narrabri and Bogabri.  The Nimbus was less fortunate after starting somewhat later. They found that Garry had used up all the thermals and they consequently needed an iron one to make it back to Keepit.

After arriving back in his Decathlon, Justin Smith flew in the Grob with a friend who had been on the safari, and they had about an hour after a relight.

Once all the gliders were put away, we had a very convivial evening under the shadesail in front of the clubhouse. We searched our respective pantry shelves and managed to come up with the makings of  a curry.

Lets hope the weather is a bit better for soaring tomorrow!

28 November

Rain on Wednesday - cleared up in the afternoon, but no-one flew. Nick Singer went home. John Hoye and John Wakefield came out and did a touch-up job on the tug. 

Thursday was a better day, though storms forecast for the afternoon. Everyone wanted an early launch. Juho's licence turned up in the mail, but he didn't like to do any towing without getting used to the plane first, and we didn't have time for that, so I did the towing again. All the gliders lined up and each was ready when I came back with the tug - 11 launches without having to stop the engine! 2 relights. Vic Hatfield, Trevor West, Brian Du Rieux, Hans Hiltbrunner, Dave Shorter, Harry Potts, Garry Speight with Robin Walker, Ross Edwards Peter Robinson and Ray Tilley flew. The task was Upperhorton with a 40k circle then spring ridge with a 40 km circle and back to Lake Keepit.

The conditions looked good, but cloudbase was quite low, and it was a difficult day. Garry and Robin outlanded near Tranquil, Ray Tilley at Baraba, and Hans Hiltbruner somewhere near Rangarai I think.

The promised storms did not materialise till late in the afternoon. I towed Ray back from Baraba, two speed prob is useful for that, Dave and Peter landed back at the field quite early and went out for Garry and Robin, whilst Vic and Juho went for Hans. Everyone got back before dark.

On Friday it poured with rain in the morning - Tamworth was flooded. Dried up in the afternoon, and Ian Barraclough came back from Inverell with his C185 MIE. He briefed Juho, and he did a few circuits in the Callair, and is now ready to tow! He has about 200 hours of towing experience in Pawnees and Cessna Ag Wagon in Finland.

25 November - catch up

Hi everyone,

I have had a lot of complaints that I have not been updating the blog lately, so here goes a brief catch up.

Went on holiday for two weeks in October, met up with an old friend, and got engaged! So that was a bit exciting and may go some of the way to explain why I have not been blogging much lately.

First week back from holiday, i.e. last week in October was very quiet at the club, hot weather and good conditions, but no people!

First two weeks in November were absolutely frantic. 5 students the first week, including two

visitors from England, one from Germany and two from Newcastle. Rob de Jarlais

came out to help instruct, and we had the two two seaters going flat out all week. Bruce Clark and Ian Barraclough towed. There was a really good atmosphere with all the pilots that week, everyone helped everyone else, and we all had a great time. Three students solo by the end of the week!

2nd week in November we had four visitors from Mt Beauty gliding club. Mart Bosman and Craig Collings brought both their gliders and their partners to Lake Keepit. The girls, Heather Mull, famous professional runner of Hang Gliding and Paragliding Competitions, and accomplished hang glider pilot herself, and Viv Williams, ace paraglider pilot - 2nd of the women in the Paragliding World Championships, Manilla 2007.

It was another great week, with a really good atmosphere. Viv had done some winch training before at Mt Beauty, while Heather was new to sailplanes, and initially somewhat suspicious at the idea of going over to the dark side. Both girls did really well and were solo at by the end of the week, Heather only needing a dual check for A certificate. The weather was brilliant, and both the boys did 500 km tasks during the week. Viv gave Garry, who was towing for us, an enormous hug after going solo! Nice to see appreciation for the tuggie! I really enjoyed teaching Heather and Viv, and their emotion at flying solo in sailplanes was a great reward.

I have challenged both girls to come back next year and duplicate the boy's cross country flights.

Last week we had two visitors from the UK, and the weather was dismal almost the whole week. However we flew on Thursday, and Friday quite a good day, though rather windy. Peter Robinson (who I sent solo at about this time last year) on his second every cross country flight did about 240 km - not sure exactly but its on the OLC.

Weekend was pretty ordinary with very strong winds but a couple of brave souls took to the air for AFRs!

Weather so far this week has been really good. Brian DuRieu flew over 500 km yesterday, and both he and Nick Singer flew over 400 today. Peter Robinson has done two 300 km flights on his 3rd and 4th XC flights.

I did 11 tows today, and one self launch (Nick) one relight , so 11 gliders in the air. One outlanding at Barraba airport, all back now. We have a going for distance week going on, and are setting tasks in the morning. All the club gliders have been flying (except Puchatek) which is great to see. Lets hope we can keep it up!

Today I picked up Juho from Tamworth, a visitor from Finland/Switzerland, who is going to do some towing for us during the summer. This is great - I might actually get the chance to fly my own glider once in a while!

So from now on we have a tuggie, the days are nice and long, and everyone should be comeing out to try to achieve that cross country goal. The gliders are not booked next week, so there's no excuse!

Some are going on the Keepit Safari next week, but Juho and I will be at the club keepit things going.

Will try to keep up the blog for all those interested in what's going on.

Jenny

Long weekend - a bit more

On Sunday, all the gliders packed up early - I think everyone was confused by the hour changing. I took the opportunity to test fly the tug with and without the controversial mirror, taking a logger with me. 

It climbs like a homesick angel with a glider hooked on to the back, both with and without mirror!

Putting the mirror back on again is a tedious job, but I managed to do it with Matthew Minter's help on Monday morning.

Eventually the rain cleared up on Monday, and Ian Barraclough arrived in MIE, and I got ready to fly home in my Jabiru. After briefing Ian on the Callair, I departed for Cowra, thinking it would be a bit close with last light.

Wrong! With a 30kt headwind, there was no way I was going to get home before the sun went down, but I had a sort of "i've started so I'll finish" attitude. The upshot was that I had to divert to Dubbo, and arrived there just on sunset. The kind unicom man told me the wind was 210 degrees 25 kt gusting 33 kt - and there was no other traffic - no one else daft enought to be flying perhaps! I'm not sure I really wanted to know the numbers - I had no option but to land anyway! However runway 23 was almost into wind, and the landing was uneventful. Had to stay in a motel - all part of the game!

Next morning I had to scrape a heap off ice of the wings before I could take off for Cowra. Still a head wind, but only 10 kts this time, and the flight was uneventful!

Cool day in Cowra, but nice looking cu - looked like a good gliding day.  Having my long weekend now, as I worked over the real one and absolutely had to get home to see my Dad!

Will be on holiday for two weeks starting next week, but Gerhard will be looking after the club while I am away, and I will be in touch by email. So no excuses not to go and fly if the weather is good!

The soaring season has definitely begun- the first frogs of summer have taken up residence in the toilets!

See you all later in a thermal somewhere....

John Clark's Blog

Dear blog readers,

John has written about the last few days flying, so I am pasting his comments here. Apologies to those that have already read them

Hello All,

I think you will not be getting a blog from Jenny about the weekend,
so here is my point of view.

I turned up at the club on Wednesday night with the glider formerly
known as the invisible glider after its 12 month refinish. A DG-400 ex
NZ.

With help from Matthew, Gabriel, Robin and Jenny, the wings were put
on and the controls connected and checked on Thursday. John Wakefield
and Jenny were staring at the tug a long time... or the mirror
belonging to the tug. There was talk of grounding it or removing the
mirror. I think for us visiting pilots, Jenny's desire to keep the
show on the road and fly the tug based on good prior experience with
the mirror was the news all of us wanted to hear.

The weather was fine, but not promising for any great soaring. Matthew
and Gabriel launched in the Jantar and LS 7 and had some reasonable
time before landing around 2.45 when the lift expired. John Wakefield
flew the Junior.

I had to test fly the DG-400. Robin Walker offered some useful advice
and ran the wing with Jenny in the tug. I took a high tow and ran
through the normal tests. I had not taken a glider near VNE before
(other than with Gerhard.... I had asked if the air-brakes in one of
the two seaters were speed limiting... He said "I don't know, lets
see" and we pointed the glider at the ground and waited to find out.)

The best lift available that I could find was zero sink and only
managed around 30 minutes before joining Matthew and Gabriel who had
taken another tow, on the ground.

Friday offered similar but better conditions. Ray Tilley turned up
with his wife to work on the club LS-6. Has anyone noticed that Ray
does not need to wash the bugs off his glider? Is not allowed to wash
the bugs off his glider? Watch for this.

I had spoken to #2 wife in the morning. She had asked me what I was
doing on Saturday. I thought this was an odd question since she knew I
was up at the club for gliding. Why else had I been working nights and
weekends for for the last 6 weeks? Of course I had to ask why and was
slightly miffed when she told me that it was our wedding anniversary
on Saturday. Why keep things like that a secret! Why does she keep
referring to me as #1 husband?

For Friday, the forecast was for thermals to stop around 4 and for
overdevelopment with a 40% chance of thunderstorms at 13-1 on. With
those odds, Matthew did an air experience flight early, and Gabriel
and I launched at around 2. Here, Ray Tilley demonstrated his
opportunist leanings by rushing off and launching as soon as he saw
people were staying up.

I think Matthew and Robin W launched in the Grob, and soon the four of
us were "enjoying" some character building thermalling in booming lift
which occasionally averaged 1 knot. Most people managed to stay up a
couple of hours, but no great distances were done by anything other
than the small circle route. The rain started around 4.30. The flow
into the top side of the new hangar was good enough to restart the
flow in the Murray Darling and for me to wonder if I would be able to
get my glider out the next day.

The forecast for Saturday was for more of the same but with around 25
knots of wind at height. Good odds for another storm in the afternoon.
Garry Speight turned up to work on his glider. Jay Anderson appeared
briefly to take his glider up north for the comps.

Ken Flowers turned up to fly his Grob 109. Apparently he has a useful
motor glider instructors rating. Peter Shields was duty instructor and
Jenny flew the tug again. Peter did an air experience flight and then
went on a mutual with Robin W (after he had run my wing again.) The
tow release on this DG-400 is a belly release and I was glad of a wing
runner. I raced the tug back to the ground, narrowly losing while Ray
Tilley got up to 7,000'. Peter Shields had reported getting 10 knots
up to 6,500' with his passenger, and I believe this lift was around
since I found around 10 knots sink in the same place. I took another
tow and scratched around below 4,000' feet before reaching 6,500' and
boating around for close to two hours. Ray Tilley did some proper
cross country demonstrating that it was more my ineptitude than the
day. The wind was there, but at only 18 knots and straight down the
strip.

Roll on Sunday!

I did a ground test of the motor on my glider. I have spent an
enormous amount of time getting the engine up time down from a wheezy
27 seconds to less than 10 seconds up or down so the motor
installation is now pretty clean. Running the motor with that noise
like a Lancaster bomber puts a grin on my face like a 12 year old.

The forecast for Sunday was for 35 knot gusts at altitude and a 3-5
chance of rain. However the sky was blue. When I asked Jenny if she
thought it was worth flying, she replied "I ALWAYS think it is worth
flying." That's the attitude!

Matthew Minter was duty instructor with Jenny back on the tug. Matthew
took a group of local farmers for some flights over their properties
to the north west of the park. One of their sons was taught to hook up
the tow rope and wing run. Useful knowledge to help me with another
launch. The DG-400 has a fairly stiff trim spring, and the trim lever
is on the parallelogram stick. These make setting a trim speed and
keeping station near the ground on tow very easy and relaxing.

After a very challenging 45 minutes in the air, with the farmers
watching, I managed to prove Boris' rule that for every spectator you
get one landing bounce. Well almost. I only counted two bounces and
there were three of them watching at the bus. The wind was barely 12
knots and once again, almost straight down the strip from the north.

During the night the rain set in, and Monday was horizon to horizon
lowering cloud. By the time I had decided to shoot through, the rain
was bucketing down and continued all the way through to Maitland.

JC

30 September

Sorry about the lack of communication! What has been happening here?

Well last week with John Hoye's (paddock rated tuggie) help we managed to achieve outlanding checks for both Alan Monroe, a visiting pilot from central coast, and David Seib, now living in Manilla. Gerhard was at the club and helped out with Alan's paddock landing, and I flew with Dave Sieb into the paddock. I'm always quite relieved when we get out again and back to Keepit! I am now trying to encourage David to tick the boxes and get his silver badge, but he may just skip that and go straight for a 300 km.  For any that don't know, Dave is a very successful hang glider pilot. Phil De Joux continued his progress and was transitioned into the Jantar Standard. He is planning to return in November to do some more flying.

After two days of rain, and a lot of mowing of runway 14 to make it safe, we had some quite good flying conditions, with reasonable soaring opportunities, however cross country was still a bit of a challenge.

Flew home last weekend, back on Monday morning - nice easy trip with brilliant sunshine. Beautiful power flying weather.

Geoff Sim has taken to the air again, arriving last week in his Lancair after having his cast removed. He is still sporting a limp, but he is on the mend after breaking his leg riding a motorbike in the outback.

Long weekend coming up, and I will be standing in for Vic on Saturday, and flying the tug on Sunday.  Hoping to get the AFRs etc out of the way early in the morning, so we can all fly a task later on. Anyone want to go XC with me in the Grob on Saturday? There is an air experience flight booked in for Saturday, so would appreciate it if one of our AEIS could do the honours.

Don't get left behind, the good soaring weather is only just around the corner!

19 September

Another excellent day today.

Started off overcast, with an indifferent forecast. Dennis Stacey took off in his Citabria to fly to Port Macquarie, but came back because of cloud over the ranges. We took a drive to the outlanding paddock, and Denis said he thought it was OK.

By the time we got back to the club, the overcast had broken up and there was good cumulus, although it was not all that high. Phil De Joux took to the air with me in the Puchatek to do the dreaded outlanding check!. All went well, and Dennis retrieved us without incident. We did some thermalling practice and spins to get back down, as Dennis left again for PM and I was needed to fly the tug.

Hartmut Lautenschlager took two launches in the Junior, I managed to find him a thermal on the second one! Both Phil and Hartmut need to practice their thermalling skills - bank up more steeply! However they are in the best place to do it!

John Hoye and Geoff Neely will be the crew for tomorrow, and Garry Speight and Andrew Brumby on Sunday. Its warming up, and the thermals are good - time for all you early solo pilots to tick a few more boxes before the XC season kicks in.

Jenny

18th September

Hello All
Fantastic weather today and yesterday, and the Callair is back again, although the powers that be seem to think it needs to have navigation lights - just in case we go towing at night!

Phil de Joux our new member from New Zealand has adapted to the Junior very successfully, so much so that we are thinking of throwing him into the Jantar Standard! Denis Stacey has had his towing permit revalidated by Phil, but has been helping me with instructing while I have been flying the tug since it came back on Tuesday evening. On Monday and Tuesday we winch launched, and good soaring flights were had. Robin did about 350km yesterday in his Ventus.

Hartmut Lautenschlager can come out to fly for a week or so, and passed his AFR today no problem after a year not flying! Well done Hartmut. Good to see you back in the air.

This afternoon Phil landed the Junior at the end of the runway, but decided not to fly again - what could I do but fly it back to the hangar! Dennis obliged with a tow, and I climbed out to about 4000ft, then made my way to the north toward Rangarai where the clouds were better. 6 kt thermals, and max height of 5500ft. Felt a bit guilty being up there in work time, so flew back to the field and made the hangar landing.

The bugs on the wings of all the aircraft are terrible. Really have to wash them off in the evening before they set hard.

The plan is to drive home this weekend and pick up the LS7 from Temora, so then all our fleet will be flying except for the LS6, which I can't get back to working on because everyone keeps flying!

The weather has been beautiful this week - no better place to be than here! So all of you had better get those AFRs done and out of the way, because you are already missing great soaring weather!

11 September

A busy day at the airfield today. Firstly I needed to have an AFR to be legal to do anything else, so Garry kindly came out to do that, and Geoff Neely came out and drove the winch. Its always really good value flying with Garry, there's such a lot to be learned. Whenever you get the opportunity, take advantage of it!

We got about 1300 ft on the launch, and picked up a themal somewhere near the rock wall, and were able to climb to 4500 ft where we could do stalls and spins - as far as you can in the Grob. The sky was completely overcast, so the thermals were surprising.

After that I had an air experience flight to do, and once again was able to soar. The visitor was so happy I got a big hug after the landing!

After that I flew with Phil de Joux, a visitor from New Zealand, who has elected to join the club as a full member. Phil will be flying with us for a few weeks at a time - please make him welcome. Also John Trezise, who hasn't flown for a while. John did his first solo on the winch today. Phil needed to revise launch signals and emergencies as he hadn't winched for some time.

11 launches in all for the day. Many thanks to Geoff Neely for driving the winch, and Robin for driving the buggy all day.

More of the same tomorrow weather permitting!

9th September

Harry had a good flight off the winch yesterday - 6 kt thermals and a cloudbase of 7000ft apparently. He flew from Keepit to Kaputah, Mullaley, Manilla, Gunnedah and back to Keepit. No one else flew.

Today I launched him again on the winch, straight into a 3 kt thermal. He was up for about 21/2 hours, but said the conditions were not as good as the day before. There is quite a bit of water lying on the ground on the plateau near Rangerai. Again he was the only one to fly.

Lots of people coming out for the weekend - Tuggies ball, and AGM. Accommodation is all full up, apart from the couch in Room 6, unless you can persuade somebody to share!

Time to get those AFRs done, ready for the soaring season - which has already started! We can also help those who are not winch current become so - it is a valuable skill. Aerotowing seems excessively slow by comparison.

Jenny

8th September

Llong time between blogs!

Our maintenance week went very well, we all had a good time, and got quite a bit of glider maintenance done at the same time. If we do it again next year I am sure we will be better at it! We need to include the trailers, winch and buggy in the program for maintenance week too - also the club cars

The Grob and the Puchatek now have fresh form 2s, and Ian Sawell has manufactured a new wing walker for the Jantar, and also welded up one of the luggage racks on a bike. The wheel brake now works properly on the Grob - but save it for outlandings!The LS7's form 2 was completed, but a major defect was noticed, which means it has had to go to Temora to have the bearing on the inboard left airbrake arm replaced. We prepared the underside of the fuselage which was badly scored for repainting, and also found a leak in one of the pitot sources.

One of the things that made the week so successful was the catering done by Wendy Medlicott and Marga Tilley. Those of us doing maintenance didn't have to worry about cooking at the end of the day, and eating together made it very social. No fights over kitchen space either! Thanks to everyone that attended.

Tom Gilbert has replaced the bearing, closed up the hole, and fixed the leak in the pitot source (inside the fin) but the painting is not yet complete - takes a while to cure in winter. However he said it should be ready to return to service next weekend - however I won't be able to collect it next weekend as we have the Tuggies Ball and AGM going on. It should be ready to fly when it comes back.

Todd Clark has been doing work on the Tug at Tamworth with Vic as his offsider, and we are hoping it will be back here sometime this week. The old generator has been replaced with an alternator, which has involved changes to the electrical wiring.

4 private gliders got their form 2 done as well as the club ones, and I managed to get the Mosquito rigged and installed in its new hangar. Not test flown yet though.

We have been flying on the winch from time to time, but it has been fairly quiet at the club. The LS6 is out of the air at present - I am working on on it as best I can, with telephone assistance from Ray Tilley. Two very rainy days enabled me to finish the Puchatek canopy cover, and make a new one for the LS6. Please look after them!

Robin has been at the club wielding the lawnmower and whipper snipper - the clover is really starting to get going. We need to spray some roundup along the edges of the bitumen runway to kill the weeds that are springing up there.

Just about to go and launch Harry on the winch today - cus are popping at its looking good!

Jenny

Tuesday 19 August

Back from holiday in sunny Darwin, flew into Lake Keepit on Monday morning. Brilliant sunshine, and a large crew of helpers for our maintenance week. Very cold thought - at least for someone who has just come back from Darwin.

Wendy Medlicott and Marga Tilley kindly offered to cater for the workers, and this has taken a load of all the workers - not having to worry about cooking after a hard day's work on the gliders. So far it all seems to be working well, and there is always someone around to help with rigging gliders or turning wings over and so on. Also plenty of second opinions! Only drawback is that maybe we are doing more talking than working!

Ray Tilley has been co-ordinating the workers, and supervising work on the Grob 103. Laurie Murray came up to do Harry and Wendy Medlicott's gliders, but has been available to give advice to the rest of us, which has been great. Dave Turner has finished his hornet, and is now working on LS7 with me, and probably we'll move on the the LS6 tomorrow. Ian Sawell is doing some fibreglassing jobs - making a wingwalker for the Jantar at present. John Clark and Graham Hollond working on the Puchatek, John Tresize, Geoff Neely, Bob Emery and Robin Walker also helping out. Sorry if I have missed anyone.

It has been a great turnout

Club ops Sunday 3rd August by Peter Shiels

Sunday dawned cold and crisp. Blue skies above and fine weather forecast.

The reality, however, was that some dense high level cloud came from the west, sufficient to prevent the ground to warm sufficiently for themal activity of any note.

There were a few members in attendance, including; Ray & Margaret Tilley, Gerhard Stuck, Matthew Minter (& Lee Ling?). Charlie Szpitalek travelled from Walcha to drive the tug. Jim Hackett was getting into a taxi as I pulled up and left to return to Cairns. He had been at the Club last week and managed to get his ASH26M out of the trailer, rigged and into the new hangar.

Saturday had seen better weather with several soaring flights in excess of 2 hours.

Trevor West who had flown yesterday, turned up again, but only to complete derigging his glider. Seems that on the Saturday, he was unable to detach the tailplane and returned today with a larger sledge hammer (just joking! - with Gerhard's assistance they managed to find the cause of the mysterious problem.without resorting to violence). Trevor is off shortly on a European trip (aren't we all??) and wont be back until a few days prior to the Queensland comps.

Meanwhile back at Keepit, no one was overly keen to fly. Ray and Marga decided to head back to the (c)hills of Armidale. Matthew Minter decided to undergo his Annual Flight Review and we got the Puchatek (GKD) out to the flight line.

We had 2 flights and then Matthew took a high tow (accompanied by Lee Ling) to finish the day.

The high cloud thinned out late in the afternoon and the sun shone through, however, it was too late to generate any lift.

Bring on the spring!!

Peter Sheils

Week Ended 1 August

No flying at all after John's winching weekend - very quiet. Wet and wild weather.

On 28 July, Darian Thom came to the club to learn gliding. He has it as his goal to become a tuggie with our club. Already has a tailwheel endorsement, so just needed to get up to speed with gliding, and then get some tow pilot training. This seems to be a problem as two seat tugs seem to be rarer than hens teeth.

I arrived back at Keepit on Monday morning at abou 10.30 am - Geoff Neely there all rugged up ready to tow, and Darian arrived just after. Weather was very showery - After one flight in the morning in the Puchatek, it rained so we put everthing away again and had lunch. Managed four flights in between showers - one of them we managed to soar to cloudbase at about 4000ft, and got rained on, but were able to do the stalling and spinning sequences.

Darian showed very good aptitude with glider flying, and did excellent landings.

On Tuesday and Wednesday John Hoye came out to tow, and Darian was joined by Peter Debnam, who had flown solo in gliders in 1988, but not got back to it till recently. Had been training at Camden, but unable to get enough flights one after the other there, so one of the instructors recommended us!

Using the Grob 103, I was able to send Darian solo on his 9th flight - which has to be some sort of a record, even for a power pilot! Congratulations Darian. Although he only needs to be of solo standard in gliders for towing, he decided he would go the extra mile and do his A certificate. Phil Anderton (tug master) came out to meet him and we had a beer!

Peter was a little tense to start with, but we soon beat that out of him. We did 11 launches altogether, and had some reasonable soaring - which enabled Peter to get used to the glider and get his turn co-ordination sorted out.

On Wednesday Darian flew the Junior to get the necessary solos in for the A certificate, which left me free to bash the circuit in the Grob with Peter. At the end of the day, John and I swapped places - he in the glider with Peter and I in the tug and we sent Peter solo at the end of the day! Thanks for your help John. 17 launches in the day! John Wakefield came out and had a look at the Puchatek for me, but I hardly had time to even talk to him. Sorry John!

On Thursday, Darian stuck around to help out with wing running and glider retrieving, and Garry kindly came out to fly the tug. We reverted to the Puchatek today, as I believe it is an easier glider to land - more circuit bashing culimating with two good solo flights! Well done Peter - the hard work is paying off! Darian snuck in another 2 solos as well - now going for B certificate!

I look forward to seeing Darian around the club in the future as a tuggie when he has his towing permission sorted out - he is really helpful bloke!

On Friday Jim and Maria Hackett came to the club, and Ray and Marga Tilley came down from Armidale. Gerhard made an appearance too - he will be at the club for a week or so he said. Jim and I went on a mission to Tamworth to get carpet for the new hangars, and succeeded in getting enough for Jim's spot. Ray assisted him with track, and by Saturday he was able to rig his ASH26E Bravo Kilo, and ensconce her in her new hangar space!

I meant to get away early on Saturday, but as always got delayed. However flew home at about mid-day. The Grob was soaring happily by that stage with Trevor West aboard - seemed like a really good gliding day.

Catching Up

On Saturday morning, 12 July, Mike Rose persuaded me to have a flight in his PIK 20E - who was I to refuse? Ian Barraclough kindly offered to tow early in the morning because I had to drive back to Cowra that day. We had a problem getting the tug started in the frost, so Ian towed me in his own aeroplane MIE.

The PIK really feels like a fast machine, a delight to fly. Thank you so much Mike for the opportunity to fly it.

Robin has reported on the rest of that weekend's flying, pretty good by the sound of it. The tug started OK later on, and I think I have the technique sorted out for getting it going on a cold morning now.

Got back to the club on Monday, with Mosquito trailer in tow. Just had time to park and unhitch it before the heavens opened and it rained more or less for the rest of the day. Bruce and Matt Clark turned up for a short gettaway break in the evening.

Tuesday morning was very foggy, and Geoff Sim, on his way here by Lancair, had to stop at Mudgee and wait for a couple of hours before proceding. Tamworth and Gunnedah equally fogged in. We gave Geoff a call as soon as it started breaking up, and he arrived safely later on.

Once the fog lifted it was a nice day, and Bruce flew in the Grob for a couple of high tows, with young Matt. It was the first time I towed with the new mirror on the tug - its great.

On Wednesday, it was rather overcast, and felt completely flat and dead. Having been nagged by Matt, Bruce decided to take a launch anyway - a couple of sled runs he thought. He took a launch to 3000 ft and soared for nearly an hour - most unexpected! Just goes to show it can be worth taking a launch sometimes even if it looks no good.

It felt funny me towing and Bruce in the glider - its usually the other way about!

Pretty quiet on Thursday, but Steve Hedley and Ross Edwards turned up in the evening. Steve came to do some more electrical work on the new hangars, and they planned to derig the Nimbus and take to Camden for its form 2 at the end of the weekend.

On Friday some people turned up who had booked to do air experience flights on Saturday - the weather was fine, if windy, Steve Hedley was available to fly the glider, so we did them there and then. No time like the present. They were agreeable surprised to be able to fly straight away. Steve reported some signs of lift on the first flight he did, but nothing on the others. Had we started earlier it would probably have been quite good, and the clouds were looking good.

I was happy with those flights as it was the most crosswind I have ever towed in, and it went perfectly OK, and I managed to land smoothly and without ground looping! Perhaps I've got the hand of this after all..... Towing is fun!!!

On Saturday heaps of people turned up for John Hoyes social winching weekend - the weather on Saturday was beautiful, but I had to go to Cowra for the weekend again. It's a long drive - I'll be glad when I get my Jabiru going again. As it happened it was a good job I drove, as the weather on Sunday and Monday was not conducive for flying.

So that's the news so far. Lovely day again today, where are you all?

Weekend Flying - by Robin Walker (edited by Jenny)

Hey all,

Saturday saw heaps of people ready to fly with a passenger, Edna Bradburn, from Nambucca heads arriving at 11am. Edna had been given the flight for her birthday, and had been arranging it for some time.

The forecast for the day was reasonable but was going to be blue.

It should have been a good day. Trevor West turned up to scratch and itch, Garry came out to fly and we had two hang gliding friends of Jenny's here from Boonah, Mike Zupanc and Mike Rose. Mike Rose had his Pik 20e. Jenny got offered a flight in the Pik and took it sat morning early before heading to Cowra and Temora to pick up her glider.

Edna had a great passenger flight with Rob De Jarlais and wants to come back again. Trevor and Garry went up and down. Gabriel got to fly the pik too so he is very happy after flying the LS7 for the first time this week then flapped ship too. Off course he went flying in the pik and the LS7 but just up and down like the others.

Sunday you should have all been here, 300km weather, with cu's to 4500 above ground and some nice streeting.

John Hoye and Christian came out with the barbecue for next weekend, I launched at 12 and got into good lift with a lot of drift, but headed for Barraba, got to Gainey's and then changed to go towards Kaputar Over the flat it was working well and streeting so I ended up just northwest of Narabri 101km from home, south along some streets to Nea station and back to Wean Race course and then home for a beer.

After me Christian, Gabriel and John Hoye took launches but had a hard time finding lift to get away.

Thanks to all members on duty this weekend

Robin
330km at 88kph

Friday 11 July

Cold night but blue sunny day with light wind. Set up the winch, and did seven launches, three each for Scott and Mark, and one with Zupy. Had one rope break after which we cut out a large section of rope containing a lot of splices. Some light thermal activity in the middle of the day. Mike Rose self launched in his Pik 20 E and had a reasonable flight.

After lunch we got the tug out and I did more training flights with Mark and Scott. Gabriel flew the LS7 and Mike Rose briefed Zupy, who then flew the Pik.

With the bad weather we had during the week, I couldn't quite get the boys to solo stage, although Scott came close - he had the advantage over his brother because if there were any thermals to be had, Scott got them every time, and Mark missed out!

Both the boys finished up by doing a good circuit and landing, so they ended on a positive not. Almost in darkness, Zupy had a second flight in the Pik - aerotowing.

Thursday 10 July

Geoff turned up bright and early to fly the tug, the weather forecast was terrible, but we were all here to fly, so we got gliders out regardless.

Mike Zupanc wanted to have his first flight in a single seater, so we got the junior out. I gave him a check flight in the Grob 103, and we took the opportunity to do a couple of things he had missed in his training - descending on aerotow, and flying in high tow. Not both at the same time! After that we threw him off in the Junior, which everybody loves to fly. He had some nice flights in it. The cloud broke up during the day, the wind was only about 45 degrees off the strip, and moderated during the day. We started to get thermals. Gabriel did his first ever flight in the LS7, and did a beautiful 2 point landing. I did stalls and spins with the boys, and Scott managed a 50 minute soaring flight. We were able to see what its like to thermal with other gliders, as we had LS7 Pik 20E, Junior and Puchatek all in the air together.

Dave Sieb came out to visit, not particularly intending to fly, but was inspired to get out the Jantar and take it for a spin. He had nearly an hour.

Vic Hatfield came out to train Gabriel in the black art of air experience flying, and I believe has signed him off as an AEI. Congratulations Gabriel!

17 flights altogether for the day!

Robin Walker has been at the club, and although he didn't fly today, he was invaluable helping with runing wings, DI ing gliders and retrieving us from where we landed. An excellent day for the middle of winter - not quite 300 km weather though!

Winching tomorrow morning weather permitting.

Early July!

Been a bit quite on the blog lately as I have been quite busy. It has been freezing cold here.
On Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday and attended a theory course with Judy McKenzie at Gunnedah Aero club for a private IFR (instrument flight rules) rating. Learning something new with the power flying - its all a challenge. On Thursday I thought I might as well give up, but by the time Sunday came around I was getting to grips with it, and managed to pass the exam. Now I will have to find time to do the flying in the Gunnedah Aero Club's Piper Archer.

Meanwhile Vic ran the day on Thursday, and Tony Esler (club member) and friend Barry McCarthy were at the club. Tony flew the tug, Barry flew the Junior, and Vic supervised. Many thanks to Vic for covering for me. They had a good day, and Barry managed to soar for about an hour. I think he will come back later on to do his silver C badge with us here. Tony and Barry left on Friday, because the weather at Caboulture (where they came from) was looking dodgy for Saturday. Tony has a private IFR rating.

On Saturday Garry flew the tug, Vic took up a couple of air experience people and Christian and Ray Tilley flew their gliders. From the flight sheet it seems they had soaring flights.

On Sunday Phil Anderton flew 8 launches, including some very high ones in which Matthew Minter was doing some filming. Ray Tilley, Gabriel Kalkbrenner, John Steward, Peter Sheils all flew, and Peter took up a passenger flight.

On Monday we had 10 flights in cold windy conditions. I have two youngsters Scott and Mark Robinson here on a course, and Gabriel and Matthew did some flying together - Gabriel getting used to flying in the back seat of the Grob. John Hoye did the honours with the tug!

On Tuesday John Hoye towing again, and I had a flight each with Scott and Mark. However the cloudbase was so low that John waved us off at about 1200 feet to avoid going into the cloud. Good opportunity for the boys to see the wave off signal. Some people came along wanting Air Experience flights, but we couldn't do it because the cloud was too low - a real pity. We put the glider and tug away, and warmed up a bit. By the afternoon the weather cleared and we were able to start flying again, however the wind was strong, and very crossed on the runway. We ended up taking off on runway 32 and landing on 27. A difficult introduction to take offs and landings for the boys, but they are coping quite well.

On Wednesday we got the glider out, and were sitting in it waiting for the tug , but it started raining, so we decided to give it a miss for a while. We ended up not flying and had quite a bit of rain, low cloud and strong wind. It was very very cold!

Some hang gliding friends who have crossed over, Mike Rose and Mike Zupanc turned up having driven through snow to get here. We rigged Mike Rose's Pik 20E in one of the new hangars out of the rain. He offered me a flight in it but unfortuneately I have not had chance to accept!



`

The week so far -Wed 2 June

Monday was a good soaring day for the time of year - at last some instability, but quite windy. Fortunately straight up the strip.

Robin Walker self launched in ZBM, Ventus 2 and had about three hours. Al Giles took a high tow (thanks Al, I like flying the tug) and joined him in the Jantar IZT. Gerhard test flew the Junior HNY after finishing off its form 2. At last we have a new trim spring. He released at about 1300 ft above ground and stayed up for 35 minutes - no mucking about! As luck would have it a couple turned up on the offchance of getting an air experience flight, and we were able to accommodate them. Gerhard hopped out of the junior and into the Grob and away they went. He was not able to stay up long on the first flight, but soared on the second. The visitors were very happy - smiles all round!

With the strong wind there seemed to be some wave influence which disrupted the thermals, - probably why Gerhard was unlucky on his first air experience flight.

On Tuesday we didnt fly - blue and sunny, very strong winds forecast, but actually not too bad on the ground. Didn't look as if there was much in the way of lift, and a passing CT4 confirmed this when I asked. Gerhard was a bit concerned about the trim in the Junior, and after consulting the manuals, adjusted it according to the instructions. After a further test flight on Wednesday, he pronounced it fit to be returned to service. Thanks for doing that Gerhard - much appreciated.

John Hoye and John Wakefield came out and had a good look at the tug - John W is our unsung hero, always doing maintenance jobs on the aircraft quietly in the background. In this case, he removed a surplus to requirements CHT probe, and modified the shock cooling warning light so as not to be affected by radio transmissions. Geoff Sim and Robin Walker and I assume the Johns and Gerhard derigged the ashes of the ASH and got it into the trailer to go down to Tom Gilbert in Temora. Robin will drive it down there.

Tony Esler and Barry McCarthy flew in from Caboulture, and Barry went for a couple of flights in the Grob. There was some lift around, but it was quite late before we got into the air.

The good news is that the Mosquito's form 2 (annual inspection) is finished, and it has new wing pins fitted - no more shims! I will pick it up from Temora the weekend after next probably. Even better news is that I now have a hangar to put it in.

Tomorrow I am starting a private IFR course at Gunnedah airport - another new challenge!

Weekend Flying 28 and 29 June

Heaps of people at the club this weekend, as we had an instructors panel meeting and work going on with the new hangars.

Nick Singer did the honours instructing on Saturday, and transitioned Kurt Wiesman into the Grob 103 from the Puchatek, then Kurt did a couple of solos in it, watched anxiously by girl friend Dong Ping. Al Giles flew the Jantar IZT and Stephen Black made one of his rare appearances and got current again.

John Hoye and Jay Anderson shared the towing.

Ray Tilley Tim Carr Steve Hedley, Harry Medlicott and Phil Anderton all worked on the new hangars.

No soaring flights - very stable.

On Sunday there was some cloud about for part of the day. Jay Anderson did the towing, and Nick did some more instructing with an AEF flight, and a check for Kurt. John Stewart made and appearance and flew the LS6. Bet he's left the rudder pedals where I can't reach them again!

The bad news on Sunday was that Geoff Sim attempted to launch in the ASH 25 and it seemed to backfire and caught fire. Luckily some quick thinking by Tim Carr saved it from being completely destroyed. He towed a large hose over from where the hangar work was going on and connected it to one of the watering points at the top of the field and was able to put the fire out. However it will be a long time before that beautiful glider takes to the skies again. Luckily it happened on the ground, not in the air, and no one was hurt but it is still a mystery as to what caused the problem.

25 June 2008

Thought I had better write something so that the blog doesn't look too neglected. Not a lot has happened since our attempted wave flight 10 days ago. I have been plugging along with maintenance, and John Clark has been frantically moving the web site to another host because it broke down.

If you usually get to the Lake Keepit Soaring Club web site through Google, it is not working terribly well at the moment, but if you type www.keepitsoaring.com into your browser, it works perfectly!

The weather has been cold, but at the moment blue and sunny - really pleasant to be here in the countryside with the kangaroos for company.

Work has started on the new hangar doors and there is visible progress - one quarter of one hangar now has working doors - and I'm sure the rest will follow quickly.

I am planning to have a glider maintenance week in August - a Form 2 party! Thought if we all did our Form 2s together (club and private ones), we could help each other out, and learn from one another. Also I will organise proper food for the participants, so we can socialise over a meal after a hard day's glider inspecting! Proposed time is 18 to 23 August or 25-29 August ( which are all weekdays). Test flying could then take place at the weekend! We will need helpers who are not form 2 qualified, as well as form 2 inspectors to supervise. You don't have to be an expert - a lot of it is cleaning and lubricating! Please could anyone interested in taking part let me know which week is best for them - majority rules.

Thought I would try and run a gliding course specifically for women and girls, if there is any interest. Keep the OFITTHs out of it. Please mention this to anyone you know who may be interested.

Quite a large contingent of people are expected this weekend, including Kurt Wiesman and his partner DongPing, who are coming up with Jay Anderson in his Piper Saratoga.

That's all for now
Jenny

Sunday 15 June

After Saturday's barbecue, I went back to the tug hangar to do "Action 2" on the tug's tost release and change the spring. This took quite some time, but as I was in the mood to get it done I persisted with it! We used it today.

Garry turned up in the morning, and for a while no one came. Then some people drove in who had seen the winch launching from the Caravan Park yesterday - however at the time they came, we were not operating, so they left

Then David Seib turned up and Geoff Neely.

Conditions were very windy, which is why I elected not to fly home - its very boring fighting a 30kt headwind in a Jabiru! However, there were signs of wave in the sky. Geoff Neely self launched in the DG400 and reported passing 8000ft in wave. Dave and I then decided to fly, as Garry was happy to fly the Callair. Dave flew the Jantar, and I took the LS6 as it was in the front! Geoff by this time reported climbing to 12000 feet in the wave.

However Dave and I were unable to contact the wave, although we did get some lift, neither of us was skillful enough to find the wave and get up in it. I tried to ridge soar the Carrol range, but gradually descended and left myself a nail biting glide to get back to the field. However the LS6 is a very good glider and I made it back for most of a circuit!

It was quite interesting and different to fly in these conditions, and the verdict was "better to fly than not fly" I am now enthused to try searching for wave conditions here this winter!

Saturday 14 June - by Peter Shiels

New father, Tim Carr was rostered as duty Instructor, but asked to be relieved of flying duties that day. I volunteered to take his place.

I didn't broadcast this substitution as I suspect that people have been avoiding turning up when they know I am the Duty Instructor.

I was surprised to find Jenny on site when I arrived. She advised that she was there to arrange to ferry the eTug to Scone for AD works. She had arranged for Geoff Neely to fly CUR to Scone and that she would precede him in the Jabiru for the trip back.

Christian Linnet, Sam Clift, Trevor West and Garry Speight turned up. We decided to get the winch out with the main objective being to give Sam Clift a conversion to the winch.

There was a steady breeze blowing from the South and the lowest height gained was Sam's first (instructional) flight when we got to 1450'. After driving the winch for the first 6 flights, Christian decided that the developing cu's were too tempting and decided to get the Cirrus out of the hangar.

With me now driving the winch, XQV achieved 1800' and Christian managed to find a thermal and disappeared for about an hour. Garry Speight who had taken over instructing duties with Sam Clift decided that Sam was proficient in the dark art of winch launches and sent him off solo. Well done Sam!! Sam had 3 solo flights in all and reported 1700' height on all launches.

Trevor West was content to be the retrieve car driver all day. Thanks Trevor. We finished the day with 10 winch launches, all without breaks - real ones that is!

To celebrate, Sam had brought some steaks with him, Christian supplied the bread rolls and we finished the day with a barbecue tea. (Although the steak was the best I have ever tasted, Sam admitted that it wasn't Breeza Plain grain fed beef, but all the way from Gloucester!)

Jenny and Geoff had a successful trip to Scone and back. Hopefully the eTug will soon be back as support for the Callair.

Callair Returns to Keepit!

At home at Cowra, I looked at the aviation forecast, and it was none too good. Strong headwinds and rain showers. However, looking out of the window, it didn't look too bad so I decided to give it a go. Went out the the Cowra aerodrome at about lunchtime and started loading my stuff into the hopper of the tug and installing the required cushions so that I could reach everything. The DI revealed that an inspection hatch was missing - Phil Goard supplied me with another one. Everything else being OK, I fueled it up and sallied forth to Mudgee.

There was a citation jet doing (very large) circuits at Cowra, and he called me up to see if I was doing ag work locally or flying away. Silly man - if I had been a real crop duster, I wouldn't have had a radio!

Anyway the flight to Mudgee went very smoothly - a bit of a shower on the way, but only a few spots. As luck would have it the wind was blowing straight up the strip, and I greased it on. Of course there was no one there to see.

Fueled up again (60 litres) and set off for Lake Keepit. Went up higher this time to try to save fuel, but it was very cold. Once over the Liverpool ranges I came down again to warm up a bit.
Not a soul at Lake Keepit, so had to do a precautionary search to scare the kangaroos off the strip, then landed on runway 14 (several times). Boris used to say that the number of bounces you do when landing corresponds to the number of people watching. It certainly worked at Mudgee - but do kangaroos count at Keepit? I'll have to practise more. Fueled up again - 68 litres, so it took 128 litres for the trip. The tanks hold 150 litres, so I could probably have done it in one go - but played it safe. (A Jabiru requires 30 litres for the same trip - but not so good for glider towing!)

Managed to rearrange the hangar so as to get the Callair in ( the Junior, E-tug & Jabiru are in there as well), and that is the end of the story!

We need to do "Action 2" on the hook before we can use it for towing.

E-tug needs to go to Inverell this week for a bungee change amongst other things. Anyone interested in flying it there? I will retrieve said person from Inverell either by Jabiru or motor car whichever they prefer! Alternatively I can fly the E-tug, if someone else can do the retrieving.

Sunday 8 June - By Peter Shiels

Sunday was a nice warm sunny day. Clear skies early but cumulus forming about mid day. Brisk, but a not too strong breeze from the E - SE.

I arrived at 9.30am to find I had the place to myself. Tug pilot Charlie Szpitalek rang from to advise that strong winds and low cloud was delaying his departure by C172 from Walcha aerodrome. I recommended he call back later as there were 2 AEF's (Air Experience Flight) booked for 12.30.

I did some miscellaneous cleaning up in the Club House. It was obvious that Miro had been visiting from the North Coast as there was a box of beautiful, big avocados in the kitchen. As they were rapidly ripening, I took several home with me. Delicious!! Much nicer than the usual supermarket fare! Thanks Miro.

Charlie rang back to say he had been in 'phone contact with Jenny and that the AEF's were due to arrive at 1300hrs and that he was leaving Walcha to fly to LK.

Jason Cluff and his lady friend, Alex Halsted arrived on schedule as did a young visitor (Dominic) from Rathmines (Lake Maquarie).

Jason owns the property at Mullaley where the distinctive mountain peak is situated. He (and Alex) has recently tried tandem parachuting and paragliding and were keen to try soaring. Dominic and his family were regular visitors to Lake Keepit for the June long weekend "Keepit Kool" sailing regatta. His brother had been for a joyflight on previous trip and now it was his turn.

I was able to find lift on all three flights (<4kts>) and all three enjoyed their flights (Dominic was starting to feel "off" and we made a rapid decent from 4000' without "incident" but Dom insisted that he still enjoyed his flight.)

I have a feeling that we will see Jason back at LKSC again. He was enquiring about training times and costs. I am sure Jenny will follow him up, particularly as he lives relatively close by.

That was Sunday. Pity there were not more there to enjoy the pleasant early winter weather.

Regards

Peter Sheils

News to Saturday 7 June

Friday was a blue sunny day, and after chasing 4 cows off the runway, I got the tug out and ready to fly. The wind was very light, and although the cumulus looked reasonable, there wasn't much lift about. Kurt did five solos in the Puchatek, the last of which we practised cruising level on aerotow.

Ray Tilley and Marga Tilley turned up in the afternoon, and Ray drilled a hole in the Junior to inspect a suspected crack that had been noticed in the form 2 inspection. It turned out that there was no crack, and the inspection hole will be repaired in due course, but it won't stop the glider from flying once we have the replacement trim spring.

On Saturday morning Craig Borchard came out to do some more training on the winch. We did the daily inspection of the glider and winch in thick fog, but it cleared up as predicted and became a nice sunny day.

Trevor West made a comeback, and after helping with the winch operation, lined up for an aerotow. John Stewart also made an appearance. Sam Clift came out to the club, and fixed the shade sail almost before anyone noticed he had arrived! He and Ray between them also replaced the bearings in the tailwheel of the Junior.

Craig had three winch launches with me, and Kurt Wiesman had two more solo launches. In very light conditions, Craig and I managed a launch to 1700 ft in the Puchatek. This winch launching really is OK! Craig was much more relaxed than last time, and his co-ordination much improved.

The Winch was put away at about 12.30 pm, and the operation changed from 14 to 32 and aerotowing, thanks to Geoff Neely who flew the tug. Geoff Sim offered me a lift back to Cowra in his Lancair departing at 1.30. We arrived at Cowra at 3.00pm despite having 15 to 20kt head wind at the height we were flying. That aeroplane is fast! Geoff Neely took over the running of the day, and also offered to look after the flying on Monday. Thanks Geoff, much appreciated.

I am planning to fly the Callair back to Lake Keepit on Monday weather permitting.

Thursday 5 June

No flying on Tuesday or Wednesday due to an excessive amount of rain and low cloud. Geoff Sim flew in on Wednesday, amazing us all by diving through a hole in the clag near the dam wall, and flying a circuit under the cloud at about 500 ft. He declined to fly the ASH though!

Kurt and his girlfriend went shopping in Tamworth instead of flying - and so did I. Miro and Ian Barraclough went home.

Today it was quite cloudy for most of the day, but calm conditions, and the runway gradually drying out. We had a leisurely start after lunch. Kurt decided he would like to finish off his winch endorsement, which he started last time he was at the club. Garry came out to fly the tug, but obliged by driving the winch instead - most efficiently as always.

Kurt flew well on the winch, and went solo at the end of the day. The sky cleared and it was quite blue towards evening.

I'm hoping it will be a better day tomorrow and Kurt can get a few more solos under his belt.

On Saturday, I will be instructing on the winch in the morning for Craig Borchard - anyone able to assist with crewing would be appreciated. Then the plan is to go home and get the Callair!

The news up to Tuesday 3 June

Spent most of the day with Dave and Sam doing the form 2 on the Junior. Sam arrived at the crack of dawn, and as no-one was about, set to and fixed Geoff's electric fence to try and make it more cattle proof! However they are very resourceful cattle, and they were in again the next day. However the fence was still intact, more or less. It seems that the battery powering the fence is stuffed, so at the moment the trusty statesman is doing the job.

On Saturday it was more form 2 work. Vic ran the day, and got the winch out. Both Geoff Neely and I were available to fly the tug, but no-one seemed to want to aerotow. Christian and Vic drove the winch between them.

On Sunday we had a group of kids from the Australian Air League Tamworth Boys and Girls squadrons. We had the gliders out early, and the winch inspected and ready to go - but they didn't turn up. Just when we thought they were not going to show, they arrived! It seems I had misunderstood their time of arrival. Sam Clift drove the winch all day, Geoff Neely looked after the paperwork and glider times, Kurt Wiesman (new member) ran wings and did the radio calls, Graham Holland retrieved the rope with the dune buggy and I retrieved gliders and did the odd splice. Dave Shorter, John Hoye and Garry Speight did the flying. We got a couple of the kids to hook the rope onto the gliders, as we OFITTHs preferred not to grovel about on the ground. That has to be the worst aspect of winch launching.

There was a brisk easterly breeze, and good soaring conditions. It was sunny all day. Many of the flights were soaring flights, so the youngsters had a good time. First and last launches had rope breaks, and there was one frayed splice that Sam spotted before it caused trouble that we had to fix. All the breaks occurred at splices, so we need to inspect all the splices carefully before we use the winch again. The rope itself still seems OK.

Phil Anderton came out to fly the tug, and did 3 launches. Harry and Wendy Medlicott flew their gliders and David Seib flew the Jantar Standard. We had aerotow and winch ops at the same time.

2o flights in all during the day including the two cable breaks. We packed up quite early and I for one was quite tired. Harry Medlicott came back at dusk, and those darn cattle had got in again! We scared them back into Geoff's so Harry could land.

I have not seen them on the strip since then - so I hope they are learning to fear the fence again.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the air league cadets. They all had a great time, and perhaps we may have planted a seed that will grow into a new glider pilot in years to come.

Monday was overcast all day, and with a brisk easterly wind. Kurt Wiesman is my post solo student for the week. He has his A certificate now, and wants to work on the B and C. We had problem with the water supply again - but the State Park managed to fix it by about lunchtime.

I had three flights with Kurt - he was a bit rusty since his last visit, but the conditions were quite challenging.

Today (Tuesday) and during the night we have had a lot of rain - the green tank is almost full again! The black one does not seem to fill up as fast - I must look into that. No flying today, but we are hopeful for some more training tomorrow.

The Callair is ready to return to Keepit, but I unable to fetch it until the weather clears up.

We struck a slight snag with the Junior form 2 - the trim spring broke. Good job it happened on the ground rather than in the air! It will take about 10 days to get a new one made, but other than that it is OK.

The week so far

Got back to LKSC on Tuesday - no tug yet. Latest ETA is now Friday!

Since then I have spent most of the time chasing cattle off the strip, including a huge fat bull, and trying to fix the electric fence to try and stop them coming back. So far they seem to be winning the battle. However last night after I stood the fence up yet again, I had the satisfaction of seeing the bull test it and get zapped on the nose!

We have had another water problem - we ran out of dam water last night. No the lake is not empty - there is a problem with the pipe going into the tank on top of the hill. The state park don't seem to be able to fix it quickly, so they have trucked in about 8000lt. No more watering to be done until this problem is solved!

Went up to the fence again this morning - sure enough down again - but not as badly as before. Then the motor bike I was on broke down. Lee McKinnon, visiting Camden pilot, helped tow it back to the hangar.

Dave Shorter arrived at about lunchtime - he flew in the Puchatek with Lee - who is getting back into gliding after giving it away in 1967! He used to instruct in T21s in Malaya, and learned to fly in a primary glider. I flew the tug. It's quite fun to be tuggie instead of instructor now and again. It looked like quite a good day, but they didn't manage to soar. I think we were a bit too late getting going.

Harry and Wendy Medlicott arrived this afternoon. Harry says tomorrow is a welding day - but we'll see what the weather does.

The feedback from our students at the weekend is good - both are intending to come back for more of the same! Both are shift workers. Crag took the trouble to ring and offer to come and help out during the week if we need him. Thanks for the offer Craig - I will definitely let you know!

Thats all the news I can think of at the moment. Standby for the next exciting installment!
Jenny

Friday/ Saturday at Lake Keepit by Robin Walker

Hello all you hard working people,

Friday was a quiet day with Steve Hedley having a flight in the
Nimbus and Jenny and Garry doing some winch practice.

Garry managed to get to 6500, while Steve found the day a challenge ,
the day did not start till after 1pm.

Saturday started early with Jenny and others getting the winch ready
from 8am, winching started at 9-45 and no cable breaks.

The forecast for the day on the blip maps was looking OK and cumulus
started to generate earlier than Friday.

Christian took the last winch launch and got away easily, I self
launched just after and got away easily to start heading for BARRABA.

With the pressure on so as not to be a liar, I left Keepit at 4800 ft and
headed for Barraba. There was good strong lift, 4kts, the cloud base
at the hills was rising and lift was getting stronger average 5kts.

Made Barraba easily with good streeting ahead so decided to head for
Bingara. No stopping, kept going, turned 29km short of Warialda
122km from home at 7000ft with good streeting back to the Kelvins.

From here the day was dying and it was getting hard to find lift but
struggled past Carrol to 20km south. Turned to scratch back to Keepit,
thought I needed another 30km for my 300 so headed for Manilla, got
abut 11 km ran out of height and lift so turned to run home. Bummer!
Sink, no glide, down with the undercarriage - oops a little lift - keep
going - still air - arrive to join base at 600ft.

All in all a good day so that's the first of the 300km days I
suggested would happen this weekend, sorry you missed it.

Robin

Weekend of 24 and 25 May

Craig Borchard and Ray Bell came out for winch intruction at 8.00 am on Saturday. At least they were supposed to come at 8, but they were so keen, that they turned up 20 min early! Fortunately I was up an about when they came, as I had intended to do the daily inspection on the Puchatek before they arrived.

We did the paperwork and the DI on the glider and were about ready to go at 9 am. Nick Singer, who was rostered instructor for Sunday, kindly agreed to be duty instructor for Saturday as well. and gave the students a thorough safety briefing. We decided that he would take Ray, and I Craig, as Ray was coming back on Sunday, and Craig was not.

Each student had three winch launches, then Craig had one more, and we were able to get away and soar on the last one. Christian Linnet opted to winch launch in the Cirrus GQV (the most flown glider in the known universe) rather than aerotow, and got away first launch. A friend of Alan Paulsen's had a trial flight with Nick on the winch and they got away first go too.

Plenty of members were available to help out with the winch operation, which was great. We decided to pack up the winch operation at 12.30 and spend the rest of the day using aerotow, but we overran a bit. Both Craig and Ray had as much flying as their concentration would allow in their early stage of training. Ray was clearly game for more of the same, as he turned up again bright and early on Sunday morning.

In the event only one aerotow was require in the afternoon. I flew with Alan Paulsen in the Grob 103 and we had a very pleasant afternoon's soaring, though we didn't venture very far away from the field. The cloudbase was about 5500 ft.

Robin managed to fly 300 km - you can see his trace on the OLC. Ross Edwards and Steve Hedley shared the nimbus - but not both at the same time! Both had good soaring flights.

We finished the day with a meal at the pub in Gunnedah - a great day's gliding.

On Sunday I got up early and did the daily inspection on the Puchatek with Ray. We were somewhat later starting the operation as there were a couple frayed bits of rope to repair before we could start. I was going to drive the winch, but Peter Shiels did it for me, and I was able to fly back to Cowra in the afternoon - so not sure how the rest of the day went.

Friday 23 May 2008

A good day with plenty of cumulus about.

Robin Walker and Steve Hedley arrived at the club sometime last night, but were nowhere to be seen in the morning. It turned out they were doing something to the engine of the Nimbus.

Garry Speight offered to come out and help me get current winch launching again. We spent the morning cleaning and greasing the winch and setting it up. When it came to launching, the clouds were looking good. Since Garry wanted to do some soaring in his Twin Astir, I launched him on the winch. He got away first go, and flew around for a couple of hours. He said he had a struggle for the first 40 minutes, but then was able to climb to 6500 feet! Steve Hedley manage to get the motor in the nimbus going and launched before Garry and had a good soaring flight.

When he landed, we swapped places and I did three launches in the Twin Astir. Steve Hedley did the rope retrieving, wing running and kangaroo scaring. Even at 4.30 in the afternoon I was able to maintain height over the caravan park while waiting for the rope to be towed back!

Geoff Neely came out to make sure all was ready for the weekend winch course, as he had agreed to be winch driver. He and Garry walked the rope to make sure there were no dodgy bits.

Thanks for the help guys. This winch launching is not so bad after all!

Thursday 22 May

The day looked really good with scattered cumulus - looked about 4500 or 5000ft. John Hoye and John Wakefield turned up in a nice looking Cessna 210. Bob Emery came out to fly his Cirrus.

After a bit of discussion about who would tow who in what, John and John flew together in the Grob and I did the towing.

I found a decent thermal for Bob, and he had two hours local soaring. John and John had a soaring flight of about 40min.

I got my feet off the ground flying the tug, so it was all good!

News up to Wednesay 21 May

Last Thursday Todd Clark came out for a fix and flew the LS6. Harry Medlicott also flew. Neither of them got much - I think I launched them at precisely the wrong time. Once they had landed, the storm clouds brewed up and we had rain.

Went to Gunnedah for grocery shopping and petrol - big excitement!

On Friday Harry and Ray Tilley had a welding day, but it looked by far the best flying day of the week. Harry did some work on my trailer fittings - for which I am very grateful - and they helped me to derrig the Mosquito as it is due for its form 2. My plan was to drive to Cowra on Friday night and then go the rest of the way to Temora the next day. Turned out to be a disastrous trip, with a blow out on the trailer just outside Gunnedah, and you guessed it, the spare tyre had a slow leak too. Couldn't jack the trailer up unassisted so ended up calling out the NRMA. Made it to Gunnedah but had to stay the night there near the tyre place. Found the trailer tyres were an unusual size which weren't in stock, so had to replace all three!

Finally made it to Temora, after a couple of sleeps, just after dark. Cold, raining and deserted. I parked the trailer where I usually leave it outside Tom Gilberts hangar and got bogged. Went to phone for help - no coverage. Luckily a short walk put me within phoning range, and Tom came out to help. But after looking at the problem and the mud, we decided to call the NRMA again. The serviceman came out with a winch, and had the car out in no time - much better than grovelling about in the mud. After all that drove back to Cowra, arriving about 9 pm. Reminds me why I prefer to fly home!

I was hoping to fly the tug back to Keepit on Monday, but it was not quite ready - waiting for some heavy duty electrical wiring for the generator to be delivered. So drove back to Keepit! Hope to be able to fetch the Callair back next weekend.

Tuesday and Wednesday were warm sunny days, but fairly stable. Some lift about in the middle of the day. William White turned up on Tuesday afternoon, and we went for a flight in my Jabiru to take photos of his newly acquired land near Manilla. He is hoping to build a house there in three years time. Garry came out to tow on Wednesday, and after a few check flights, I was able to send William solo again. He managed a half hour soaring flight. Then did another two circuits - which now makes four solos. All good landings.

Looks as if there will be quite a bit of activity this weekend - we will be able to test the theory 300 km flights are indeed possible during late Autumn!