The forecast was gloomy, but the weather out of the window didn't look too bad. I did not feel very motivated this morning and thought about flying home to Cowra. There were problems with the tug, but fortunately John Wakefield saved the day, and bled the brakes. They are still not as they should be however. Garry once again agreed to fly it.
Because of the uncertaintly with the tug, the winch was brought out, and two launches were done. It was quite windy on the ground and I imagine they would have got good height - neither required a relight. After that the winch was put away and the remainder of the launches done by aerotow.
The task was Springridge 40km, Boggabri 33 km and Splitrock Dam 30 km, 2 hours AAT. Due to the poor forecast most of the gliders took off early. I flew the Mosquito launching at about 1445. There were a few showers about, but it wasn't as bad as had been feared. Went down the hills toward Quirindi, then back along a street to the Kelvins, across to Splitrock and back to Lake Keepit. Only did about 184 km in the two hours. The others were coming back as I was leaving. Allan Buttenshaw launched just after me, but went a different way, and ended up landing out somewhere north of Gunnedah. Sam flew the LS7 and had a low save near Gunnedah, but got up again and finished the task.
Dave Turner was duty instructor for the day, and did an AFR with Ian Sawell, and a couple more flights with Jim Thomson.
The day was better than expected but the thermals were rough and difficult to centre - unless it was just me! Although it was reasonably windy on the ground, paragliders were flying at Mt Borah so it couldn't have been all that windy there!
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