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
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
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