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
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
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.
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.
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