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.