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.