Friday 20 November. Last Day of Competition :-)

Good looking trace from the temp flight, but the weather actually feels sort of stable and hot like yesterday. Forecast 42 degrees in Tamworth again today and tomorrow. Keepit is usually hotter than Tamworth. After telling us earlier that pilots did not want us to call a rest day, the people setting the task said that in Europe, they have an enforced rest day after 7 days continuous flying. However if we had done that, we would have missed one of the best days of the competition. Luckily quite a few are electing not to fly if they feel its too much, and that is a very wise choice.

A couple of people from the National Competition Committee wanted to say stuff at the briefing, and this started to degenerate into a pilots "meeting" read argument. I feel quite pleased with myself as I shut them up and got on with the briefing. I'm hot tired and cranky and no patience for them any more.

During the briefing one of the CT4s from Tamworth did a beat up of the strip followed by a barrel roll, which was entertaining. We've been ringing them up every morning to let them know what the task is.

Only short tasks set today as its the last day and everyone is tired. We were not too sure about the weather. Pilots are requesting a later start but we'll get them all marshalled.

NBN TV turned up and were interviewing me just when the launch was supposed to start, so we postponed it by 10 minutes. There were cus popping to the east, so we started launching the gliders at 1240, and none had any problem staying up. No relights. The clouds were looking good but it was hellishly hot on the ground. I gave them about 25min before opening the gate.

After the launch I decided it was just too hot on the ground, and the only way to cool off was to fly my glider. Last day of the comp so they couldn't sack me. I got it ready and launched about 1545. Good lift near the strip, though not very fast then flew out to the Carrols where there was a nice cu. Good 8kt thermal nearly to cloud base. Big stormy mass developing over Kaputar - oops thats where we sent the competition gliders. Looked nice out to the west, so I went that way, all they way out to the edge of the Pillager Scrub. Maximum height 12000ft, spent most of the time between 10 and 11 thousand. The nice cloud I was heading for at the edge of the Pillager dissolved just as I got there, and I turned back for Keepit. Got down to about 6000ft on the way back - it felt very low. But worked back up to 11000 for a nice easy glide back - after all the comp gliders had landed. A couple landed out at Barraba, one somewhere south west of Keepit and another somewhere along the Boggabri road. Garry and Maren went way out toward Narrabri to avoid the storm and got home, but missed the turnpoint at Barraba so only got distance points. The G103 landed at Barraba, beating Garry for the day, but incurring the expense of an aerotow retrieve. Another pilot missed the Barraba turnpoint because he thought it was 30 km not 20 km, (wishful thinking probably) but made it home.

It was lovely to be in the air again, and nice and cool up at 10000 ft.

Thursday 19 November Competition day 10

Yet another flying day!

The weather forecast today did not promise much, but there was talk of storms over to the east. There was high cloud to the west but quite a long way away.

First of all we had a meeting of the protest committee, with resolved in favour of the the protesting pilot. I hope they make the rules clearer for the next comptetition organisers. Then there was the task setting committee, and the safety committee. Despite all the meetings we managed to get things moving on time.

The task committee set two tasks, an A and a B. As the soaring conditions were slow to get going on the grid, we changed to the shorter B task which was Edgeroi 30km Keera 40km, Rangari 20km with a time of 3 hours. Launching proceeded slowly in the terrible heat, no one had much energy, and gliders were not climbing out very well. The Sports class task was further modified to 2.5 hours. It was difficult to communicate these changes to the pilots as they were not in their gliders but in cars trying to keep cool. Jim Staniforth our launch marshal was sick today, Vic stood in for him directing tugs, Laurie Murray did the record keeping and Trevor stood in for Vic. Luckily we had Geoff Sim, Peter Shiels and Ian Barraclough helping.

We eventually launched them all and were able to rest in the shade until they came back. Geoff Sims weather station recorded 42.5 degrees.

A few gliders landed back and decided not to go again, and a few decided not to fly at all.

It was a difficult day, but only three gliders landed out, though one or two flew back early. Two landed out at Brigalow ag strip and were able to be aerotow retrieved. It was difficult for the tug to take off to get them with all the gliders coming in. The second glider came back with the tug at about a quarter of an hour before last light. The third glider had a long trailer retrieve - 3 hours drive away. He is not back yet. Darian Thom (tuggie) had done his paddock rating yesterday and put it into practice today by doing the retrieve from Brigalow.

As I was walking out to the tie down area to check on who was back and who was missing I passed Garry Speight and asked him if he had had a good day, expecting a negative reply. However he smiled and said he and Mary had had a good day! They left at about 5500ft and flew northward, getting gradually higher all the time until they got to cloudbase over Mt Kaputar. Then they turned eastwards to the Keera circle where it was a bit grey, and difficult so they just clipped the circle and headed back. Garry said they saw Paul Mander heading west, and followed him. He was trying to get away from the high ground and make up some distance in the Rangari circle. Garry said that he thought he had done better than he otherwise would have by following.

This evening there was a pilot's meeting in the hangar. I had had enough of pilots, so I had a shower and cooled down instead of attending.

A big cu nimb built up over Tamworth, and another out to the west in the evening - the sky has clouded over so it will be a hot night.

Only one more day to go thank goodness, we are all getting worn out!

Wednesday 18 October, Comp Day 9

The pilots are keen to keep flying, but I and safety officers 1 and 2 (Vic Hatfield and Trevor West) and also Witches Cauldron staff are feeling very tired. We are sitting on the ground in 40 degree heat while the pilots get high and cool.

The forecast today was problematic - a one degree change in expected temperature made a large difference to the predicted outcome. The task committee set a bit shorter time today - 3 hours for each class, with sports class taking off first. The winds were much lighter than yesterday thankfully - the typical Keepit light westerly.

It was hot by the time 12.30 came around, but pilots were not ready in their gliders, so we were a bit late starting the launch. We sent up the first group of gliders, and then waited for a few moments to see if they climbed out OK. They did, and Val Wilkinson, one of the tuggies who is also a famous glider pilot, said there was good lift about. The launch then continued smoothly until. Al Giles did a magnificent job of running ropes. The hooker oner had to be quick to stop the rings disappearing away from the glider!

A few pilots were feeling the strain of flying every day for so many days, and elected to take a day off. Those who didn't fly yesterday felt refreshed enough to have another go today.

I have not heard much about the flying from the pilots as they are all more engrossed in the "protest scandal" to talk much about their flying to me. However I did hear that someone had got to 9000ft, and some one else "only" got to 11,000 feet during the day. It was very blue around Keepit, but high cumulus on the hills. We tasked them to the north - the old favourite Bingara Edgeroi Splitrock again.

All the gliders got back except one. A couple landed back at the field, decided that they did not have the energy to fly again after all. There were no relights. Kerrie Claffey described grovelling at about 2000ft AGL near the Carolls for ages without the height to get back to the field. She did get up eventually and flew the course.

Prime TV came out and interviewed some of the pilots and Vic- I missed watching it again.

Yesterday we had some excursions from the defined contest area, and we applied a penalty of 1 point per metre outside for this as defined by the rules. Naturally this has provoked a protest, so the protest committee will meet tomorrow morning to sort it out. The flying is the easy part! The politics are harder.

Next exciting installment tomorrow.....

Tuesday 17 November, Comp day 8

Eight days flying on the trot was a bit too much for some to take, and a few of competitors wisely decided to have a rest today. For those that flew it was quite a wild ride!

We started off by setting the task for yesterday's weather as usual! We set 3.5 hours for both classes and sent club class off first again as otherwise the grid shuffling meant that some were either right in front or right at the back, but never in the middle. Competition pilots worry about these things! We picked a task to the west and one to the east so we could pick on the grid the one that went in the direction that the storms weren't. At least that was the theory.

In the end we picked west, because there was a strong westerly. I think in the event it was the better choice, although a big storm did build up to the west of us, but it eventually moved eastwards and was clear of the field before the gliders came back.

It must have been very difficult for the club class battling against the wind, but surprisingly only 3 outlandings.

Tim Carr's comments (flying Duo Discus with Ross Edwards)

"Another magic Keepit day. Launched at 1300 into a booming sky. Started at 1410 at 8000ft and followed an energy line west to Coonabarabran. Edged into the circle and then driften north in the 20 kt winds looking for our next clumb. Had a great run north of Kaputar, so turned for home at 12000ft for an 80km final glide through the last two sectors. Magic!

Garry Speights comments (Twin Astir with Mary Gordon)

A very difficult day - unable to get high before the start. Gradually got higher as made way to the south west. Long glide with no lift to touch the circle and come back to the clouds , which were not really on the way to the second turn. Lot of smoke in the atmosphere from a fire burning in the Pillager Scrub. On the way back from the second turnpoint there was good lift at Emerald Hill, but the constant warnings about strong winds at Lake Keepit distracted me from making a proper final glide decision and we arrived back much too high.

Tim Wilson also found very little lift in the vicinity of the first turn point and after that proceeded north along the edge of the Pillager. At one point his computer read winds of 48km/hr - very slow flying into the wind. Got to 11000 feet near Mt Kaputar. Rough!

Brian Heyhow claimed height of 14500 feet in thermal lift - that was cloudbase he said - yes he WAS using oxygen.

We had a bit of a dilemma on the ground when the gliders started arriving back because runway 20 was much more into wind than 14, but no briefing had been given for runway 20 being the preferred one. Also a couple of non competition gliders had landed there and found it very turbulent. In the end we warned the pilots that there was a strong and gusty wind from the left and fortunately they mostly came in with enough height for a circuit on 20. A few did land on 14, but it would have been a nightmare if all had done so with such a strong cross wind. One glider had a very nasty looking ground loop on runway 20, but no damage appears to have been done.

The trouble will start tomorrow morning as there appear to have been several incursions into the Tamworth airspace, which incurs a penalty of zero points the first time, or complete disqualification if it occurs a second time.

Monday 16 November Comp Day 7

The best flying day yet!!

It was really hot today, very difficult for those of us stuck on the ground. The aviation weather promised showers everywhere, but it was wrong - although there are some storms about now - after dark.

The temp trace indicated a good day, but the blipmaps seemed to indicate that the day would end early. The task committee set two tasks, one to the west and the other to the east, in case there was overdevelopment in one direction or the other. The launch was planned for 1200.

We had a meeting of the safety committee to discuss weather we should declare a rest day for the pilots. The consensus was that pilots that were feeling fatigued should be encouraged to take a day off, but that we wouldn't declare a rest day unless we had a day of mass outlandings when everyone would be back late. Those of us on the ground would very much like a rest day, so that we could go flying ourselves!

Only two outlandings today - one of which was at the farthest extreme of the task.

Tales of the heights achieved were rather like a fishermans tale - got higher with every repetition. However the scorer informs me that just over 15000 ft was the height they got to in the shear wave, up above the clouds. I understand cloudbase was about 13 or 14000 feet. Lucky so many of them carry oxygen.

Lars Zender said it was "all right". He did 145 kph (unhandicapped), but it wasn't fast enough he said. He lost time by taking a 6 kt thermal when there were 8 kts about. He said he had a couple that averaged 10 all the way up.

Maren and Garry had a good flight in the Twin Astir, coming 11th for the day in Club Class. The flight is up on the OLC. Their OLC distance was 419 km. David Jansen's flight is also on the OLC - he won the day again with a HANDICAPPED speed of 133 kph. His actual speed off the stick is rumoured to have been 155 kph.

Sunday 15th November, Comp Day 6

Task setting was difficult today. A brisk southerly was forecast to come in in the afternoon, so Bruce wanted to keep the field to the east, where it was thought the southerly would not have such a great influence, but we didn't have quite enough turn points in the right area. Eventually we set Gunnedah 20km, Bingara 30km Edgeroi 40 km and Splitrock 20 km with a 3.5 hour task time for Sports class, who launched first, with the same task for Club Class with a time of 3 hours. In the event we shortened the club class task to the B task which was Upper Horton 15km, Edgeroi 40km and Splitrock 20 km.

I set a goal to complete the briefing in 20 minutes - it blew out to 25, but much briefer than other days. Unfortunately this means we do not get to hear the winner's story, but them's the breaks.

We scheduled a 12.30 start, but Hank Kaufman approached me to make it earlier, so I asked him to be a sniffer. He agreed to this, and launched first at about 1210. He climbed out easily, but the pilots were not really ready - we have been starting on the dot most days, so I suppose they thought that would be the case again. We managed to start launching the field at 1220, and then went straight through. Took 1 hour 20 minutes today I think it was, but one tug had an ASI problem and dropped out for a while. The glider with the problem release had no problem today - they took it out, cleaned and tested it and put it back with no alteration. Maybe it just needed cleaning.

After the launch, it was pretty quiet on the airfield, Vic did some mowing on the big tractor, and I enlisted the help of Ron Cameron to put the small slasher on the small tractor - but by the time we had done it, the gliders were coming back. Juho did some mowing with the ride on mower.

All the gliders came home except one - but that one got an aerotow retrieve, so no crews out on the road. One glider came in much later than the rest, but made it!!

Some pilots reported getting into wave at the start.

Ian Aspelind from Kingaroy flew with Charles Yeates from Nova Scotia in the Kingaroy Club's Duo Discus - not in the comp. "Our best thermal was straight of the tow, 12 kts peak, average 8.5kts. We went to Narrabri - conditions were good but blue. However on the way back we hit heavy sink and were down to 1200 ft more or less abeam Boggabri, without enough height to get to the mine, (usually a good thermal source) we thought we were done for. Then we hit a boomer which we took to 8000ft and made it home from there." I bet Kris, Charles wife was relieved!!

Todd Clark - Club Class, LS4: "Going really well until the ground got too close!" Todd admitted that perhaps he had pushed to hard. He said he took a 5.5kt climb which was too slow - he hadn't been working anything less than six. So he left it with his glide computer showing 2000ft below final glide - and unfortunately the computer proved to be correct.

Jay Anderson - Sports Class, LS6: "Started high 7000ft (other pilots listening at this point said they thought 7000ft was low) and had a good first and second leg working 6 and 7kt thermals. Went deep into the second circle, Bingara, a short leg to the third circle, and ran south along a thermal street showing 12kts on averager. Got slow at Barraba and had to limp home!"

Allan Barnes - Club Class, LS1."This was my worst day. Last to launch and rushed to start - started only a couple of minutes after the gate opened and had to fly alone. The gaggles did much better. Went too far to the east where the land was green chasing cumulus, but they disappeared as I got there. Nothing seemed to be working, got down to 3000ft with no obvious thermal sources in sight. Average speed at this point was only 78 kph. However got up again and managed 120 kph on the last leg, which brought the speed up to 98 kph (handicap speed) but not fast enough!

I pointed out the Allan that at least he had been flying - some of us were stuck on the ground :-(

Saturday 14 November comp Day 5

Pilots are requesting that the briefings be briefer, so I think I will have to apply a strict guillotine tomorrow! This morning the pilots were a bit restless, and were not paying serious attention to the safety briefing, and had obviously completely switched off by the time the operational briefing came around, judging by the number who did a right circuit instead of a left circuit at finishing. We introduced a control point with a 2km radius today, so that everyone would finish from the same direction. It gets very hectic with all the gliders coming in very close together in time, but luckily our strip is so large we can cope with it OK.

Anita Taylor helped with the formatting and printing of the task sheets this morning - much appreciated - and they should be even better tomorrow. I am saving all this stuff in case we ever have to do this again.

The pilots are all getting used to the drill, all got ready for a 12.00 launch, and the launch started bang on time again. We had much more help with running ropes and hooking on today, and the soaring conditions were better, so we were able to launch the gliders quite a bit faster. So fast in fact, that I missed the end of the club class and forgot to tell radio operator Jo when to open the start gate! We also had a bit of a to do with a glider with a faulty release again at about the same time which distracted me.

The task was Bingara 40km, Bellata 30km, Emerald Hill, 30 km and Start point B2 as the control point. 3.5 hours for Club Class, and 3 hours for Sports class.

Not a lot happened on the ground, so some quotes from pilots...

Bill Hatfield "lovely day, got to cloudbase, good lift over Kaputar 12 kts for a short time"

Nick Singer's experience "Good first leg with reliable lift under cus. Continued north of both turnpoints - set TP at Gurley on the northern edge of TP2. Turned around at cloudbase to find all the clouds in the valley gone! Major detour to Kaputar (unnessesary) and slowed up (mistake) went to mine E of Edgeroi and came home on final glide at 120 kts over the lake for a straight in landing. Brad Edwards came under me just as I lowered the undercarriage!!! 10 gliders landed in 90 seconds but no conflicts - good airmanship."

Bill Wilkinson "Cloudbase at around 8000ft - dome under the cloud. Almost went into cloud gliding away from the thermal as the lift was so strong. Rough flying fast in unballasted glider"

Tuggies:

• Val "All gliders released in a timely fashion - except one hung on a bit too long. Good lift on tows speeded up the launch."
• Juho: "Only had to throttle back twice to get gliders to leave."
• Garry: "One glider pilot very politely said he was going to release but that there were two gliders on my left to watch out for - how thoughtful"

Friday 13th Novwmber, Comp day 4

After the change that came through last night, it was overcast in the morning, making a temp trace impractical. So we relied on Harry's experience and the aviation forecast (always pessimistic) and the blipmaps to set the task.

Thunderstorms were expected in the afternoon - a double edged sword. Good lift where the storm is, but no live at all where the sun is blocked out, or in the blue areas.

Because of the thunderstorm prediction we set a short task yet again. 2.5 hours for Sports Class and 2.00 hours for Club class.

We launched at 12.30 again and there we cus about. Went right through the field with no hold ups except one glider kept releasing on tow. This held us up a bit but we got the field launched in 1.5 hours.

Quiet a few sports class gliders out-landed. Two got a long aerotow home, one made himself at home at the Tambar Springs Hotel. A few club class gliders outlanded two, but the majority of the fleet made it home again.

The pilots told me that the conditions were very difficult near Wimboyne and Tambar Springs - blue and very still. However if they got past that the conditions were stormy. Nevertheless the bvast majority made it home.

All the traces were put in promptly by the competitors other than those who had landed out so the scorer managed to get away by 7.00pm

12 November Competition day 3

Everyone managed to get back from their outlandings yesterday, and only one pilot elected not to fly today. However the scorer did not get all the traces until later in the day, so the scores he posted last night were very approximate. However he's got them all now. Peter Trotter won Club Class and David Jansen Sports class.

I had a call from a landowner in the morning today saying that he has a perfectly serviceable airstrip with two runways 800m long, and why did all the gliders landed in a rotten paddock when they could have used his strip? Why indeed? Anyway he's mowing it today so it should be easier to see. He'll be disappointed if a glider doesn't drop in one day during the comp!

Today the weather was a bit problematic, in that we were not sure if it would be a really good day or a really bad day. The temp trace indicated that that once the trigger temperature was reached, gliders would be able to get very good height, but that this would not last for very long, and when it cooled down the convection height would drop again quickly.

After much deliberation the task committee set a 2.5 hr AAT task, the same for both classes with Bellata Silo 40km and Barraba Aerodrome 30km as the two areas. Club class gridded first and Sports class second.

Prime news came out and interviewed me and Bruce Taylor - possible some others too, and filmed the gliders, and the start of the launch. If it was on it would have been on tonights local news, but I missed it. Probably just as well!

We started launching at 12.30 and sent off the first three gliders on the grid. Then waited to make sure they would climb out OK. They seemed to be doing OK so we launched the rest of the gridding row, and the next. There were a lot of gliders all at the same height - not very high, so we held for about 5 or 10 minutes until they reported that the climbs were going about 45ooft. We restarted the launch, and got through the rest of the fields as fast as we could. We had an extra tug today, but were so short of people to run ropes and hook on gliders that it still took us longer than yesterday to launch the field. We really need some young fit people for this job!

As I am writing this, a change has just come through, a few spots of rain and strong winds. So the weather will be quite different tomorrow I imagine.

The gliders all came back except two today. One of these has landed out every competition day so far, but luckily for his mates, he was only at the Sky Ranch today. Gliders reported achieving heights of 10,000 feet. I notice that most did not start on task until well after 2pm, and the fastest sports class glider only flew 30km further than the fastest club class glider!

Most traces were submitted to the scorer in a timely fashion, but we had to chase a few. One of the problems is that pilots do not use the same logger every day - makes it easier for Chris if they do. Only the outlanders + one other is missing, so the scores are more or less complete.

Bruce Taylor won Sports and Paul Mander won Club class.

11 November, Competition Day 2

A difficult day for the pilots, but much easier for me - at least at the launching side of things.

We gridded at 1105 after observing a minutes silence for remembrance day, and the gliders started taking off at 12.30 on the dot. Greg Smith (I think I put Wilson yesterday) took off earlier as a sniffer, but soon climbed out, so we launched the whole field as quickly as we could.

Still short of rope runners, but Lauren Goddard helped out today, and Scorer Chris Carr, and me too!! Lots of running. We managed to launch both classes in 1hr 20 minutes - not too bad for five tugs. We will have six tomorrow with the arrival of a Maule, EMA, this afternoon so it will be interesting to see if it speeds up the launch.

Some gliders have been hanging on after getting to 2000ft on tow, which annoys the tuggies because it stuffs up their pattern. We suggested they start descending with the glider on tow if it happens any more!

The task was Mullaley 10km, Togo 40km Splitrock Dam 20 km 227.3/339.4/457.5 km and 3 hours for Sports Class, and Merrylands 20km Narrabri A/D 30km Splitrock Dam 20km 155.2km/257.5 km/367.5km and 2.5 hours for Club Class.

Gliders reported getting good height, but the thermals were a long way apart and the day shut down early. There were loads of outlandings amongst the Club Class gliders, and quite a number in sports class which really tested the outlanding retrieve system. However all are accounted for and once again I had no difficulty in getting people to go out - most of them pilots who had completed the task. Its 9.30 pm now, and many still have not returned, but some are staying in Manilla and as the retrieve had to go past there they will not return to Keepit until tomorrow morning. It all pays havoc with the catering, but Wendy Medlicott takes it all in her stride - just part of the game she says.

Jo Pocklington worked wonders on the radio once again and sorted out who was missing and who accounted for - I had my hands full on the phone taking the pilots calls. Some of the pilots called inbound at 20 km and then landed out, which made it hard.

The Twin Astir and the Grob 103 Twin ll both landed at an airstrip so were able to be aerotow retrieved - phew thank goodness for that. The duo discus had to start its motor again, and then flew into a thermal just after. But they wouldn't have got the thermal without, so no way they could have avoided the technical outlanding.

I could tell you who was first in each class, but I'll save it to the briefing tomorrow. Will be a bit late getting the scores out as no traces from the outlanders yet, and some pilots have either not put in a trace, or put one in from a different logger, without notifying the scorer so he doesn't know whose it is.

Many of the top guys in club class landed out so there will be quite a shuffle in the scores. The good news is I found my camera, so may be able to post some photos tomorrow.

Tuesday 10 November - 1st Comp Day

Today was a difficult day for me. I wrestled with computers and printers to start with and was unable to get the weather briefing onto the task sheet as I had intended.

The weather itself was very difficult - high pressure, very little cloud - only over Mt Kaputar - and a late start. The same task was set for both classes except that sports class had two hours, and club class had 2.5 hours. Club class launched first. The task was Boggabri 30km, Edgeroi (40km) Splitrock Dam 20 km. Minimum distance 149km max 394km.

We launched a sniffer, Greg Smith in the club's LS6, at about 1215, but he was unable to stay up. Then at 1300 we launched Ray Tilley and Greg again, both together, and this time they managed to soar - just. We held on to 1325 and launched the first group on the grid. Then a slight pause as they were not doing terribly well, and then we continued to launch the whole field. There were a couple of relights in club class, but all the sports class got away OK.

There were about 6 out-landings, and no - Christian was not one of them this time. Also 3 couple of gliders did not start.

A very difficult day for the competitors and for me, but those who got around had good flights, some of them getting in excess of 9000 ft over Mt Kaputar. It amazes me how people manage to race in these conditions - I would have been in survival mode the whole time!!

I had no trouble getting people to retrieve those who outlanded - even though not everyone has a crew. All the pilots are really good about helping one another out.

The finishes were spectacular, with most pilots opting for a straight in landing on runway 14, and at one stage we could see four coming in together over the water. Lucky we have such a big runway!

Jo Pocklington did another superb job on the radio, keeping track of the finishers.

Some pilots have still not identified their loggers to the scorer, but other than that and the few outlandings Chris has managed to do the bulk of the scoring.

Monday 9 November

Last Friday and Saturday were very rainy - brought about by the airfield irrigation no doubt. The roof in the flight centre is leaking again! Must clean out the gutters.

Lots of pilots about on Sunday - visitors for the comps. Some needing AFRs would you believe! We had about 30 launches and used both IGR and MRP to tow. The other tugs from Queensland arrived in the afternoon just before the rain started.

Today was the first day of the comp - a practice day as much for the organisers as the pilots. The whole field flew except for one glider. We had quite a long and detailed briefing to start with - too much for all the pilots to take in judging by the questions we got asked later. Numerous pilots don't seem to have noticed that I am the comp director, because they keep asking me if I had a good flight! Comp directors in National Contests are not allowed to fly :-(

We attempted a 12.30 start, and managed to start at 12.40, so only 10 minutes late. The weather was kind - plenty of cu so the launching went smoothly and didn't have to be held up at any time.

The gliders flew Mullaley or Tambar Springs (club, sports) Narrabri and back to Keepit on a 2.5 hr AAT. Everyone made it back despite the conditions falling apart somewhat towards the end.

Chris seems to have the scoring under control - its a big job today, but once he knows the ID of everyone's logger and has entered it into the scoring program, the process should be much more automated.

It seems to have gone quite smoothly so far, although I think we can make some improvements. Jim Staniforth is very short of helpers to run ropes - we all chipped in today - including me. Quite exciting to see so many gliders all lined up, and a challenge to get them all launched as fast as safely possible.

More news as it happens!

Thursday 5 November

Flew home to Cowra on Saturday - booming thermals and Cu everywhere - all the way home. Maybe it wasn't as good at Keepit as there were a couple of outlandings - I know because I took the calls!

Vic has only just converted to flying a self-laudnng Pik, and had a problem with the motor not starting, had to land with it half extended - not pleasant. Just shows you have to have a paddock picked when using a motor. Luckily he did have one and landed in it! Graham Davis landed at Gunnedah airport. Not sure what the rest did or what they did on Sunday.

Monday was quiet when I arrived back, except that Harry had been working like a Trojan on the runway, along with Juho and Robin. My flight from Cowra was warm at 7500 ft, and completely stable, no thermals above about 1800ft. Graham packed up to go home, as apparently Sunday had also been a struggle. Harry Medlicott launched and so did Steve Hedley in OZ the nimbus. They went out west - Harry got to Coonabarabran - he says you have to fly on the difficult days or you never learn!

On Tuesday Ken Flower flew the tug to Armidale for its 100 hourly and came back with IGR, Brad Edwards Pawnee. However Juho was still waiting for a certificat of validation from CASA so couldn't fly it. CASA had a public holiday for the Melbourne cup would you believe! His application has been in since 7th October, its only six months since he was here towing, and it takes them over a month to process this???? Sometimes I think it stands for Cease All Sport Aviation. Anyway no gliding on Tuesday except OZ, but lots of runway work etc.

On Wednesday Miro Mikus turned up and flew the LS7. His Nimbus 2 is having a 30 year survey at Temora. He also spent a lot of time putting up tarps to protect tugs during the comps. Most appreciated. Paul Mander began his coaching sessions on Wednesday, but I missed most of the briefing as I had to fly to Walcha to get Charlie Szitalak to tow in IGR. Still no COV for Juho. Booming thermals on the New England tableland, much quieter at Keepit.

I did a check flight with Chris Bowman in the Puchatek, and then sent him solo then flew back to Walcha with Charlie. 2.8 hours in the Jabiru all together. Was able to sit in on Paul's debriefing session which was very interesting. It was quite a good day in parts, but quite stormy looking by about 4.30. It is rumoured that OZ (nimbus 3 DM) had to start its engine - technical outlanding - but it did start!!

Thursday I flew to Armidale early with Geoff Neely to get the Callair back. When we got back, finally Juho's COV had arrived!! However a trough was above us, and the weather looked a bit indifferent. Ken Flower was sniffer in MXP (Pik 20E) Paul Mander in AK, Phil Volk in Discus CS, Allan Buttenshaw in Cirrus, Vic Hatfield in Cirrus, and Chris Bowman and I in the Grob 103. Task was 2 hr AAT Manilla Narrabri Gunnedah Keepit, with a large circle around Narrabri. 3 gliders bombed out, and two of them gave up at that point. Four of us continued, and attempted the task, and two landed out. It was a day you wouldn't probably try to do anything, but amazingly Chris and I got to 7200ft in the Grob a couple of times and there was some sparse lift about. I thought about flying towards a big shower of rain with a black cloud to the North, but chickened out, so don't know if it would have worked or not. Rangari airfield looked quite inviting at one stage - after a very long glide under the gray sky with not a squeak, we decided to give up and head back. Outlanding the Grob is not generally my idea of fun.

After getting back to the field, Chris went for another circuit in the Grob - he's trying to master it so he can get into the Junior next. Then I did an air experience flight before we packed up. Arran, the "passenger" had done AEFs before, so I gave him a proper lesson. He flew part of the aerotow, and all the circuit until after the turn onto final, so I think he did very well. He may well be hooked!

Meanwhile Trevor West and Bruce Taylor were setting up scales for weighing competitors - flying at the right weight is a touchy subject in Club Class competitions, so we will be making sure nobody cheats! Trevor has done a great job of mowing the tiedown area and installling taps for washing gliders - how many sites are there where you get your own personal tap?

Robin has been rushing around organising the bar for the comps, and Steve Hedley has been installing a new cooker in the club house.

David Jansen flew in from a long way away - but confessed he had the help of a "little motor" at times.

The club is filling up with people in preparation for the Nationals - camper vans and tents springing up everywhere.

Friday 30 October

No flying on Thursday - pity because the sky looked fantastic for most of the day. Todd came out to do more work on the irrigation systems and Juho helped. I tried to catch up on emails and tidy up the hangar a bit. All the work on the irrigation system must have worked because in the late afternoon the heavens opened and we had a deluge. Very heavy rain - and the flight centre roof is leaking again - just when I thought we had solved that problem. Will have to get up on the roof and clear out the gutters again. Juho's caravan has been leaking too, and has been invaded by frogs.

On Thursday evening Graham and Marie Davis from Grafton club turned up with a Club Libelle to do some flying. We put the wings on on Friday morning. It was still very damp after the rain the previous day - the forecast was a bit indifferent, with storms forecast for the afternoon.

Graham got into the air by about 12.15 and landed again about 3 pm before the rain started again. Another heavy shower. While soarable, it was not much of a day for cross country. Meanwhile Ken Flower came out and continued my education in the G109. I certainly feel a lot more comfortable in it now, and seem to have mastered the landings - which are easy compared with the take offs!! I didn't actually fly it solo as the bad weather was coming in, but would have felt ok to do so, and Ken was OK for me to do so too. Flying it does grow on you.

After that, we went through each other's glider pilot certificate application, took photos and got them in the mail. Thank you Ken for spending the time to go through this and all the G109 stuff.

Wednesday 28th October

Monday was wet all day, lots of rain - just what we needed to fill the tanks and lay the dust on the airfield a bit. Sam spent some time on Sunday spraying weeds - he was looking particularly for Kahki weed but found very little. I think he did a pretty good job on the weeds last year quietly, and as the spring has been so dry, few have germinated so far this year.

Tuesday was a bit miserable looking with strong wind - Todd has been working tirelessly on watering and pumps - Juho has been rolling the strip while there is still moisture in the soil. Trevor came out to install taps for the tie down area and mark the positions for gliders to park in -Juho helping.

Today was blue and sunny with excellent cumulus and very little wind - however no flying as all the local members are busying themselves with competition preparations. The tie down wires were repaired by Ken Flower and others and Todd continued with plumbing operations. Ken and I flew his Grob 109 with two objectives - one was for me to get a motor glider endorsement, and the other was to check out some of the airfields on our turnpoint list.

To start with I was very much in aeroplane mode with the Grob, and just could not make it go up without the engine, but once we got the first good climb, I started getting used to it. We thermalled out to Boggabri, checked out the strip and came back via Rangarai. I practised starting and stopping the engine several times, as you do in a motor glider, but I think we didn't really need it. We were getting climbs of 8 kts at times - it was a good day. You really do need to allow more height in the circuit than you do with the Grob Twin ll.

Hopefully before too long I will be up to speed in the Grob and will be able to use it for teaching paddock selection for outlandings. In the meantime, its hard work, but someone's got to do it ;-)

Kentucky Weekend

On Friday morning Allan Buttenshaw and I rigged our gliders at Kentucky. Ray Tilley was already there with Marga, and Harry Medlicott flew over during the day. Todd and Garry had arrived the day before. Bruce Taylor briefed us about flying the New England Tableland in the morning and set us a short task to Guyra then Walcha and back to Kentucky. Brad Edwards Pawnee arrived about mid-day to tow us up.

The weather was very unstable, and by the time we started launching there were already rain showers about, but the lift was very good and cloud base high. Heights of 13000ft were obtained by some. Although this sounds very high, the land at Guyra is about 5000ft, so 10000ft sounds a bit low. Harry Medlicott flew over from Lake Keepit in his Ventus and Ken Flower came over in his Grob 109.

Finding Kentucky again was a bit of a challenge for me - the tuggie towed me upwind and when I release I couldn't see where I had come from. Fortunately I found a thermal and climbed up, so didn't have to find it straight away!

The trip to Guyra was OK but lots of rain showers and storms on the way back. The trip to Walcha was abandoned and the gliders headed out more to the west. Ken decided not to land at Kentucky and headed back to Lake Keepit, but all the other gliders got safely back to Kentucky having enjoyed some very interesting flying.

On Saturday the task set was Guyra, Wollomombi Falls, Walcha Kentucky for lower performance gliders, with higher performance gliders going to Glencoe instead of Guyra. Cus started popping quite early, but some of the gliders initially had a slow climb out. I was lucky and had a really good climb off the tow straight to 12000ft, and was joined in the thermal by Brad Edwards, who came over to share the fun. Ken Flower and Peter Shiels came over in the G109 and Nick Singer and Dave Turner flew from Lake Keepit in their respective Pik 20 E and Hornet. They joined us somewhere near Armidale and joined in with some of the task, but departed back to Lake Keepit earlyish as they had a headwind to face.

Good clouds to start with, climbs to 12,000 ft. I overshot Glencoe, not having the proper turnpoints in my GPS and being out of practise with the MAP. When I realised where I was I was 22km from Glen Innes airport, so I thought I go there. As is my usual luck, when I got there, the clouds all spread out and hid the sun, and it all got rather iffy. Meanwhile those who were doing the proper task reported similar conditions and were beetling back to Kentucky. I got very low north east of Guyra (8000 ft - but only 3000 above the ground) and spotted an ag strip which made me feel better. Then I decided the clouds weren't working - or I didn't know where to look under them so flew out to where there were some landable looking paddocks. Luckily I got a good climb there, slowly back up to 12000 ft, which enabled me to get back some where within glide of Brad's strip. A really good climb to 13000ft there gave me final glide back to Kentucky. Phew, made it! All the others got back too, and most of them were able to see the Wallomombie falls in their travels. It really is spectacular flying.

That evening Anita and Bruce Taylor put on a Barbecue meal for us and we had a very social evening, with musical entertainment from Brad Edwards - a man of many talents.

Next day Allbutts , Ray Tilley and I derigged, but Ken and Peter, Garry and Todd all flew back to Lake Keepit, arriving before the dust storm hit.

Mid-week 19-22 October

Juho Rossi arrived over the weekend, but had picked up a nasty virus on the plane, so wasn't feeling very flash for most of the week. So I flew the tug :(

Brilliant weather for most of the week. Our visitor from Caboulture David Austin, having flown with Gerhard on the weekend, took to the air in the Jantar on Monday. He is an experienced pilot who had not had much opportunity to go cross country, and had somehow managed to avoid getting his silver C (like some others I could mention!). So he came to us with the intention of rectifying this problem.

He achieved it in style on Monday with distance, height and time in the one flight.

John Clark and Ross Edwards also flew on the day. Since both of these pilots are good boys and put their flights on the OLC, you can see what they did!

Rod Harris (Mount Beauty club) arrived by DG 400 on Monday, but had a problem with his tailwheel, so was unable to fly on Tuesday. However the amazing Bob Dircks effected a brilliant repair and Rod was airborne again on Wednesday.

On Tuesday John Mcleod (Gympie Club) arrived by school bus intent on achieving his silver duration. As he hadn't flown here for a little while, although very current at other sites, he flew the Junior for a couple of hours on Tuesday just to get used to things again. Dave Austin and Garry Speight flew together in the Twin Astir, but got a bug in their pitot (painful) and had to land. It took quite some time to extract it, but they launched again at about 4 pm and flew until 6. Once again Ross Edwards and John Clark flew their respective self launchers. Not as many cus as the day before but still good.

On Wednesday we set a 300 km task - the blip maps promised good lift all day. Chris and Errol Carr flew together in the Grob, Dave Austin flew the LS7, John McLeod flew the Junior Ken Flower flew the Pik 20E UMC and Rod Harris flew the DG400. Rod had mentioned that he had never done a 500km task and claimed the diamond distance, so we picked one out of the book - the one that zig-zags back and forth between Edgeroi Weris Creek Narrabri etc for him to try and programmed his logger.

David Austin did his Gold distance and diamond goal, and thinking that he had to do five hours again for the gold badge, did five hours! Chris and Errol didn't quite make 300km in the Grob, but not far short (see OLC, I grabbed their logger!) as they were a bit pushed for time. John McLeod finally achieved his five hour flight and height gain - but I thought he cut it a bit fine - five hours and 4 minutes. Rod didn't quite get his 500 as he had to start his motor just short of the Kelvins (near the mine). A pity because as soon as it was going he flew into a boomer. Still thems the breaks with motorised gliders. A good effort nevertheless.

On Thursday the weather was very unstable with storms and over development around. John McLeod elected not to fly, applied to join the club, and departed for Gympie once again. He has also volunteered to help out at the comps, so he'll be back soon.

Garry and Dave Austin planned their cross country flight to Kentucky, Rod Harris took off in his DG 4oo south bound on his way back home. He has been doing a solo "safari". Todd Clark came out to fly to Kentucky also, but got involved with runway works and was late starting. The sky looked ominous but both Garry and Todd made it to Kentucky easily, with climbs to 12000ft! Rod made it to Parkes. Allan Buttenshaw and I loaded our gliders into trailers and drove to Kentucky.

Weekend 17 & 18 October

Drove home on Friday night so I could collect my glider from Tom Gilbert at Temora after its Form 2 and a couple of minor repairs. Great to have it back again. Meanwhile I think I missed the best gliding weekend of the year! Fantastic cu all the way to Temora, and all the way back again on Sunday.

Lots of flying at the club - John Clark did his first 500km flight.

Not very many postings on the OLC though - I really have to start cracking the whip on this again. The OLC now has a speed competition section, so all you people who don't like flying for hours and hours can still compete.

Posting your flights on the OLC is one of the best ways you can promote our club as a great way to fly. It enables visitors to see that we are actively flying cross country all the time. So don't be too shy or too proud - promote the club! If you don't have a secure logger, the flarm can be used to post OLC flights. If you don't know how to do it, I can show you. Unfortunately I don't always have time to steal your flarm and do it for you!!

Friday 16 October

OK so I'm late again with posting the news!

Friday 16th was another very windy day - straight across the strip. However the thermals were very good. James and Sean Davies had another flight each - they coped so well with the cross wind that I signed off that part of their training! However the conditions were not really suitable for emergencies and circuits so they were happy to leave a little early. They will be back next school holidays. James is now 15 and learning very quickly.

Last time Sean (father) and James(son) came, they were always telling each other to "deal with it". This saying caught on between my partner John and I. This time they kept telling each other to "harden up!" I have to say they managed to "deal with" the stiff cross wind conditions very well.

The same day Gerhard flew his Jantar, disappearing for most of the afternoon, Graham Holland flew his Jantar for a couple of hours and I did AFRs with Brian Du Rieu - who had flown in for the day from Europe specially - and Chris Carr.

Darian did an amazing job flying the tug - I reckon it would have been on the cross wind limit. I wouldn't have liked it but Darian just calmly "dealt with it"!

Thursday 15 October

Is it really a week since the last blog? Time flies.

Friday last week was a good day, but nobody flew. Saturday must have been good, because there were a lot of flights on the flight sheet, but very little activity on Sunday it would seem. Apparently when taxying MRP the tail wheel fell off! This was due to two broken leaf springs - one must have been broken for quite a long time, and we didn't notice. Thanks to Todd, we had spares in stock was airworthy again the same day.

Flew back from Cowra on Sunday afternoon as bad weather forecast for Monday. Had to divert around a couple of large rainshowers on track, but arrived safely at about 7 pm.

No one around to fly on Monday - Gerhard gave it a miss - was pretty windy, and I was glad I had flown in the day before. Richard Fethers turned up later on as did Harry and Wendy Medlicott, Spent the morning with Gerhard installing the new longer bowser hose - tuggies should find it much easier to refuel now that the hose will reach to both tanks without turning the plane around. Drove into Tamworth to send the parachutes away to be repacked.

Tuesday was windy and dusty. My students James and Sean Davis turned up early and got the puchatek out. The forecast was for strengthening winds so we tried to get a flew flights in before it got too bad. We managed three, but very little horizon because of the dust - then we packed it in.

Wednesday was worse - strong winds and more dust. No one flew. I did some theory with James and Sean then repainted the nose cone of the puchatek with some nice shiny red paint that Harry provided.

Today (Thursday) was quite still in the morning. sunny and clear, but strong winds forecast later. We got going by about 10 am - and the thermals got going not long after. Once the thermals started the wind started too. Like last week, it was very windy, but with very good lift and cumulus. James managed to thermal the Puchatek up to 8000ft in the afternoon so we took the chance to practice stalling and spinning. Gerhard took off and disappeared for 3 or so hours - his flight is on OLC. Ross Edwards flew the Nimbus 3. Richard Fethers flew about an hour and a half in the Junior. Harry and Wendy did numerous passenger flights with their family in the Grob. 16 tows altogether -Darian did a great job in tug in windy conditions. Rather him than me!

Conditions were very rowdy for the students but they handled it well.

Thursday 8 October

Another really good day with high cumulus, and ripping thermals. Bit breezy from the SW, but not too bad. Easily a 300km day if anyone had attempted it.

Ian McPhee and Ken Flower were working on the Pik 20E known as "Nick's Pick" - I think Gerhard was getting involved too. Geoff Sim was around too, and quietly serviced the quad bikes. Vic Hatfield came out, and we urged him to fly, but UMC, the other Pik 20 E wouldn't start, and instead of giving up and aerotowing, and great deal of time was spent looking at it. Ian had another chap with him who flew with him in the Motor Falke, (sorry I have forgotten his name - very rude of me) and he did a number of flights in the Falke.

Bill Gleeson came out with 15 year old Nicola Jones, one of the cadet pilots. She has her A certificate, but is going to fly in a services competition in Amberly, so Bill was giving her some coaching. The competition is apparently for Blaniks and Puchateks, so they flew the Puchatek.

I towed them up 3 times, and Nicola coped very well with the cross wind and blustery conditions, but unfortunately the boisterous thermals made here feel a little unwell, so only short flights. The thermals were rippers - I had trouble getting the tug down!!

A helicopter which had been flying camp quality kids at sport and rec came in to get some fuel.

I did my Annual Flight Review with Ken Flower in the Grob 109 - different! There's a lot to remember - a motor glider seems to be much more complicated than either a glider or an aeroplane! Still its always fun to do something different, and I am looking forward to do doing some more flying in the G109 soon

Tuesday and Wednesday 6 & 7 October

Flew back to Cowra on Sunday - straightforward trip except that there was a huge rainshower sitting over Cowra when I got there. I flew around it - about 5 nm away from Cowra all the time. Debated diverting to Young, but in the end dived into the rain and landed at Cowra. It was actually not as bad as it looked but a trifle damp! Stayed rainy all afternoon at Cowra - hard to believe it was just a localised shower.

Flew back on Tuesday morning - nice clear day - easy trip. Nothing like the usual pessimistic forecast.

Jacques Graells had completed outlanding checks with Ken Flower in his Grob 109 the day before. Using the motor glider allowed multiple chances to pick a paddock and almost land in it - Jacques said it made him much more confident of being able to do a safe outlanding.

So on Tuesday, Gerhard persuaded him to attempt the silver C. I programmed the logger for him while they got the Junior out, and I towed him up at 12.10. Five and a quarter hours later he landed back at the field, having done the silver distance and more, got the height gain- the whole lot in one flight. Well done Jacques. I sent Jacques for his first Solo last January, and since then he has been flying regularly at Camden with Souther Cross Club. He's now joined LKSC as well, and expects to come and fly here every 6 weeks or so. Jacques silver C flight is on the OLC.

Gerhard did not fly as he was a bit tired he said. I was exhausted too, and snatched a snooze in the afternoon, because I knew it would be a late one doing all Jacques Silver C claim. John Stewart came out and flew two friends in the Grob - not both at the same time of course!

Nice soaring day with good cu about.

Wednesday, only Jacques flew. We put him in the Standard Jantar this time, and launched from runway 27, as it was really windy and straight across the main runway.

Jacques had no problem, and didn't come back for more than three hours. At one stage he was at Manilla at 9500 ft, and got back to keepit with 7000ft despite the headwind. He said there was really good lift everywhere, and he had to use the dive brakes to get down. His flight is on the OLC, but he's used the wrong glider type, so he has less points than he should have.

I spent the day doing administrative things like organising the parachutes to be packed and organising to get the car and trailers registered. Gerhard spent the day trying to get the speakers in the Grob to work properly. In the morning we got the slasher onto the green tractor ( with great difficulty) jump started it and I mowed the patterson's curse from the edges of the bitumen on runway 14. It would be appreciated if members using the tractor for other purposes could replace the slasher on it when they have finished!

Ian McPhee turned up in a motor glider, and Geoff Sim is in residence.

Tomorrow looks like being another good day, if its not too windy.

The Long Weekend - By Phil Anderton

I was duty tug pilot on Saturday 3rd. It was not such a bad day, and it was great to see our hard-working Manager actually flying a glider for relaxation for once. She probably had the best flight of the day - the conditions were fair to marginal, but she stayed up after the second relight (Jenny to Phil: "Hey Phil, this time please take me to a cloud that is working!! - sorry Jen). Allbuts was the duty instructor.

Sunday morning (4th) I got a phone call from Peter Sheils - could I come out and tow because the rostered tuggie had not turned up. No worries - this was a great day too, mostly. Jacques Grealls was really doing well in the Junior, and Al Giles was having a ball taking his friends for mutual rides in GKD. I was thinkig that it was about time that Allbutts got a tow rating so he could tow me up in the LS7! Towing is fun - to a point, but there is nothing like flying a real glider.

Monday (5th) I got a call from Christian who had talked a mutual Tamworth friend into coming out to Keepit to try soaring as a hobby. I promised to get out there and join them (they would be together in the Grob GFP) in the LS7. Allbuts was back on duty (Thanks, Mate!) and he was not too sure about my recent AFR from RdJ - but he cleared me to fly solo in the LS7.

Anyway I got the LS7 out and towed it up to the launch point..until it started to act strangely behind the car due to a flat tyre. I stopped the car and Allbuts, Peter Sheils and Vic H gave me the good oil on how to fix a flat glider main tyre on the ground.

Got the LS7 trailer out, removed the cradle, and we shoved it under the fuselage (gently of course) enabling me to remove the wheel and brake assembly and take them back to the tug hanger to replace the tyre tube.

It only took 90 minutes (!!) and I was back in action. So at approximately 1438 I managed to get airborn in the LS7. MRP took me to 2500' and some nice looking clouds over the Sport and Rec. I bunged off into what I thought was 8 knots up, but actually turned out to be 8 knots down!! I managed to just scramble back to the field over the lake and was lucky to find the "home thermal" over the rock wall at about 1000' - it was 200 to 600 ft up and got me back to 4000' where I was joined by Vic in UMC. We stooged around for an hour or so - max height 7000' in pre-frontal lift - verrry nice.

I love towing, but it is so much nicer to float around in an LS7 for an hour or so.. Anyway, finally a small front came through and destroyed most of the available lift, so I stooged back in sink to the circuit and landed slightly crosswind on runway 24.

It was a great reminder to me of how much I really enjoy flying gliders - towing is fun but it is also "work". Gliding cross-country is much more enjoyable.

Looking forward to more gliding this season.

Thanks to AllButts, Gherhardt, John Hoye, Bill Gleeson-Barker, Peter Sheils, Al Giles, Christian, Ray Tilley and everone else who made this "long weekend" so enjoyable. I was expecting to tow on Saturday and spend Sunday and Monday working on the farm. As it turned I spent the entire long weekend at the club and enjoyed it immensely.

Cheers all,

Phil Anderton

Thursday & Friday 1 & 2 October

Busy days, hence late with the blog.

Been doing quite a bit of towing, while the glider pilots had all the fun. Thursday and Friday were quite good soaring days, but with a bit of over-development later on.

On Thursday John Trezise flew the club Jantar, Al Giles flew his Jantar, Vic Hatfield flew the cirrus - but didn't post his flight to OLC, so he's in trouble! Allan Buttenshaw flew the Grob with an ex-airforce friend called Rod, who he is trying to induce to take up gliding. They flew cross country and Rod came back grinning. Allan DID post his flight to the OLC, thanks Allan. When not flying, Rod made himself very useful about the airfield, running wings and sweeping out the hangar! After putting his Jantar away, Al Giles flew two passenger flights - some motorcyclists who dropped in for a look. Finally Allan test flew the Junior again, and pronounced the trim to be properly set up now, so we signed off the Form 2.

On Friday Allan and Rod flew again in the Grob, John Trezise and Al Giles in the Jantars and Ken Flower came out for a quick sortie in in Grob 109.

On

Wednesday 30 September

Busy day on Sunday with 19 launches according to flight sheet. Airforce cadets were flying. Very windy day.

No flying appears to have happened on Monday - our Qld visitor for the week became ill and went home. But Dave Turner and Gerhard were at the club. Dave was doing the Form 2 inspection on the hornet GMZ.

On Tuesday I flew back from Cowra, arriving at about 11.30. Dave and Gerhard wanted to fly, and had got the tug out and hooked the rope on. All I had to do was the DI, hop in it and tow them up. That was good - thank you.

Conditions were good with cumulus at about 8000ft, however the day blued out later on. Gerhard flew for about five hours!

Wednesday Dave went home. Geoff Neely came out and flew the DG 400. Conditions were blue, and not all that strong, but Geoff flew out west of Gunnedah. Gerhard not keen to fly in the blue, but adjusted the trim on the Junior, for which many thanks. Vic came out with his motorcycle gang and showed them around, but they couldn't be induced to fly.

John Trezise and Allan Buttenshaw turned up later in the afternoon. John and I washed and polished the Junior - it looks really good now - all taped up and ready for another test flight.

Plenty of tug flying tomorrow I think. Looks as if we will have quite a lively long weekend.

Friday Saturday and Sunday 27 September

Friday was clear and blue, but a bit breezy from the west. Evidently the blipmaps must have been quite optimistic as John Hoye came out to fly with Steve Hedley in OZ, the Nimbus 3dm. Gerhard Stuck and Tim Carr were at the club and quite a few visitors from the Warringah Radio Control Society.

OZ took off first and disappeared for the afternoon. I heard later they had been around the back of Mt Kaputar. Ray Tilley and I adjusted the trim and put the seat pan back in the Junior then I got the tug ready. Tim flew with Peter Mark and Stephen from WRCS in the Grob.

At the end of the day, after OZ came back, John Hoye towed me up in the Junior to do the test flight - but the trim still needs a bit of adjustment.

Saturday was windy and dusty, and I stayed firmly on the ground. However there was no stopping Geoff Neely and Dave Turner and Tim! Geoff towed and Dave and Tim flew with the model club members. Very windy, but the dust did clear later in the day. Dave told me they got to 6000ft on the first flight.

Sunday was clear again, but rather cold. Forecast for flying to Cowra was miserable, but the radar and satellite didn't look too bad. Very windy again though. A group of air force cadets came out to the club to go gliding - Andrew Brumby towing, Peter Shiels, Steve Hedley and Tim Carr instruction. Despite the strong winds they flew 19 sorties with the cadets - with the three two seaters in action.

I took off in my Jabiru (runway 32) just before the first glider launched (runway 27). As soon as the wheels left the ground the aircraft turned sideways in the crosswind! It was a bit stronger and more crossed than I had realised! A very slow trip back to Cowra with 25kt headwind, but I got there eventually. Good lift under the clouds - rather turbulent. Wind between the two runways of course at Cowra, but I managed to get down OK but I think it was about the strongest wind I've flown in to date!

Gerhard and Geoff will look after things at the club on Monday (thanks guys)- I'll be back Tuesday.

Thursday 24 October

Dust dust dust yesterday, and raging winds. No flying obviously. Never seen a dust storm like it - you couldn't see the horizion, and the sky was an eerie yellowish red. Spent the day making a headrest for the Junior - I am quite pleased with the result! Ray Tilley alternated between working on the Junior form 2, finishing off the Grob, and fixing some cracks on the noses of Garry's twin astir.

Today the weather was much nicer - still a bit breezy but good cumulus from quite early on. Only launched one glider - Ray Tilley in his ASW 27. Yes he does fly as well as working. Today he was rewarded by a nice flight to Werris Creek , Mullaley and back.

After he landed we cleaned all the dust off the Junior from yesterday's storm and rigged it. Still have to put the seat pan back in, wing frequency and redo control deflections. Ray has done a lot of minor fibreglass repairs on it, and fixed a few other niggles - I'm looking forward to the test flight! With any luck it should be back on-line by the weekend.

Tuesday 22 September

Rain Rain Rain here yesterday. We do need the rain, but it does get a bit depressing. A day for maintenance. Ray Tilley is here beavering away on the gliders - finishing the paint job on the Grob, and the form 2 on the Junior. He has given me a mission to make a headrest for the Junior so I had to go into Tamworth to get the materials I needed. Got the club car radio fixed (missing PIN) while I was there. Committee meeting in the evening. More rain and now dust!

The bad weather has obviously arrived to coincide with a large gathering of slope soaring modellers on Mt Borah.

I obviously stirred up a couple of people with my blog yesterday, as John Clark has now written up his experience of the weekend, and John Stewart has posted his flight to the OLC. Looks as if he got to 10000 ft at Barraba. Not bad.

Our friend Geoff Pratt, who flew here during May last year, (I showed him how to post his flights to the OLC), is now comprehensively leading the winter contest, and has just posted a 605km flight at 136 kph flying the Morning Glory at Burketown. Well done Geoff.

Weekend of 19 and 20 September - by John Clark

On 21/09/2009, at 16:50, Jenny Ganderton wrote:

> Apparently there were some good flights over the weekend, but no-one
> has either posted them to the OLC or written any of them up on the
> chat group. I heard that John Stewart got to 10,000ft and flew about
> 170km. Come on guys - don't hide your light under a bushel!

There were some good flights on Saturday, but the definition of "good"
must depend on if you were flying or not. Any flying is better than no
flying but Saturday was something different altogether.

Maybe I am not experienced enough with spring weather but Saturday had
heaps of lift, very closely aligned with double the amount of sink.
The task was set by Robin W who typically elected not to fly.
Christian and Greg (?) headed out to Manilla and Castle tops early. I
launched a little later and got a decent thermal near the strip...
which I had to leave because I was being out-climbed by Wendy M in the
LS7 who headed to Manilla after me, a little later.

I headed for Manilla and had a go at a couple of thermals on the way
with not much of a result. Wendy reported that she was returning to
Lake Keepit for a top up. I got lower at Manilla, headed back towards
Gaineys, then back to Manilla and was just about to start the iron
thermal when I got a boomer. off the dial... which alternated with off-
the-dial sink which was so close to the lift that it was like a
washing machine and near to un-workable that close to the ground, by
me in any case. So I did a TOL (technical out landing) and got back up
to 3000'.

From then on, it was character building for all.

I heard Dave Shorter launch and tell Garry S that he had water on.
Obviously Dave could handle conditions which I could not. I felt
fairly inadequate at that point. Then Christian radioed in to say that
he was about to do his first outlanding for the year near Mt Kaputar.

Then Dave S comes on the radio and made a few unqualified enquiries
about the state of the lift and how high people were getting. At that
stage I had got another boomer near Rangarai and was (briefly) going
up like a rocket. Greg (?) joined me and by the time he had bailed
out, I had lost 1500' or so. Partly because I was talking to Dave S to
explain the state of things at the end of the Kelvins and partly
because the sink was huge and mixed up nicely with the lift.

While I escaped to a black coal mine which surely was a thermal
generator, Dave S radioed in to say he was outlanding. Then Christian
comes on and says he's 20 kms out and homeward bound.

What a day! I need to learn more about something.

Right now I am looking at Torrey Pines near La Jolla in California
which gives me an excuse for leaving the club in a hurry and not
helping pick up Dave and being at the committee meeting. Lots of
"dopes on ropes" out soaring on a lovely light sea breeze and no real
gliders. It's a shame that fashion moves so fast!

Apparently they do winch sailplanes up from a strip just behind the
cliffs in April which must be a hoot. Not so much the flying, but
setting up a landing over the high rise buildings just behind the
strip... and making sure you don't fly over any of the condos on the
beach and upset the privacy loving occupants. Never had that trouble
flying over beaches and houses in Oz!

BR

JC

Monday 21 September

Thought I'd better try and start writing the blog on a daily basis, before anyone complains again!

Flew back to Lake Keepit on Monday morning - delayed by finding a Cessna 172 in front of my aircraft in its Cowra hangar with the doors locked and the parking brake on. Not very considerate. Had to fly through a few showers on the way up, but not too bad a trip.

Arrived to find that Ray Tilley is here for the week, along with Harry and Wendy Medlicott, dave Shorter and Nick Singer. I am not sure if they will be doing much flying. Ray is finishing painting the wing of the Grob, so it will look spiffy by next weekend.

Apparently there were some good flights over the weekend, but no-one has either posted them to the OLC or written any of them up on the chat group. I heard that John Stewart got to 10,000ft and flew about 170km. Come on guys - don't hide your light under a bushel!

Today was overcast and a bit showery - but not hugely windy or anything. Would have been OK for training. Nice and warm. Expecting Dave Austin from Caboolture next week to try and get his Silver C and John Trezise coming up to do the same.

Jenny

The week to Friday 18th Sept

Quiet on Monday and Tuesday - fortunately because after the frantic week last week I had 1/2 a million emails to deal with - or so it seemed. Took me most of Monday to catch up with them.

Internet connection dropped - you wouldn't think that was very important, but you wouldn't believe how much people go on about it if they cant connect. Spent most of the day on Tuesday restoring the right IP addresses to the ethernet docking station. Very frustrating - lots of more useful things I'd rather be doing.

Quite a flurry of activity on Wednesday - AFR for Miro Mikus, and two passenger flights. We also had a visit from Scott Lashmore and family who came from the Wahringa Model Aircraft Club. Phillipa went up for a flight with me in the Grob, but unfortunately I couldn't take Scott due to the weight limitations of the glider. Geoff Neely flew his DG400, and went up to Kaputar or thereabouts. I couldn't persuade him to put his log on the OLC. He said he got to 10,000ft! Garry towed.

On Thursday, Jacques Graells from Southern Cross came out to fly. Jacques came on a course with us last Christmas and went solo and now has his B certificate at southern cross. As it was very windy, and I wanted to see how he had progressed I flew with him. Miro flew the LS6. Geoff Neely towed. Conditions were not pleasant, and the thermals were very broken up in the strong wind, so we gave up and put everything away.

Today (Friday) Garry came out to fly the tug, in case I needed to fly with Jacques again, but as I didn't think that was necessary he flew his twin astir. I flew the tug. Jacques flew the Grob, and then had a flight with Garry in order to polish up his thermalling skills - but it went blue near the club, and hard to soar. Gerhard flew in his Jantar and stayed up for over 3 hours - he worked his way over to the clouds to the north of the strip and said it was better there. John Clark flew his DG800 and went up towards Rangarai.

Weather has been hot and the soaring season has well and truly arrived. So have the frogs in the toilets!

Anyone visiting the club and looking for a way to help - Please empty the bins!!!

Catch up on the news to 13 Sept

Hi all
I have been severely ticked off by Marketa in the Czech Republic for not keeping my blog up to date, so here goes.

On Wednesday the 3rd September disaster struck. I was rushing to launch Ken Flower in the Puchatek for its test flight after form 2, and didnt connect the towbar on the tug to the bike securely enough. When I stopped the plane continued, and rolled into the back of the bike, damaging the elevator and trim. So everyone learn from my mistake - make sure tow bars are securely connected to towing vehicles.

The weather turned nasty on Thursday and Friday, so Richard and Lisa went home without missing much. I took the elevator to Scone to get it welded, and Harry Medlicott brought it back again next day. Then John Wakefield took over and did the fabric work and painting. The painting took a bit longer than expected as the dope wouldn't dry, but the result looks excellent.
John W and John Hoye replaced the elevator on Friday 11th just in time for the tuggies ball.

Meanwhile I had four low time pilots at the club for the week ending 11th Sept. Rob de Jarlais had come out to tow, but being multi-talented, he instructed on the winch instead. We got endorsed on Harry's new winch - but it rained all day on the Monday.

On Tuesday we started using Harry's winch but had starter motor problems, so changed over to the old winch. It was quite windy so we were getting good height on the launches. We even broke a weak link (using Harry's winch) which brought it home to us that we need to use the correct strength with the dyneema rope, as it is actually stronger than the weak link!

As we had low airtime pilots who needed circuits, winch training was quite a good thing. We had no problem getting away on the days with thermals, but it got quite stable toward the end of the week. Still four people was a lot to manage, and I was really tired by the end of the week. Ken Flower helped out on Wednesday, Rob left on Thursday and Geoff Neely drove the winch. He went from 10 am to dark without a break, and was frozen by the end of it. I had the Puchatek and the Grob out, and had to keep hopping from one to the other.

On Friday Steve Hedley drove the winch, and Garry Speight shared the instructing - still really busy. Jay Anderson winch launched is LS6 and managed to soar for some time but it was a struggle. Bob Dircks fixed the starter motor on the new winch, and it is going OK again now. We are getting good launches.

On Friday afternoon I sent Garth Patterson for his second solo flight - the first off the winch. And the rope broke! Fortunately we had practised this , and he handled it beautifully, doing a mdodified circuit and an excellent landing. Garth has now joined the club, so hopefully we will be seeing more of him.

On Saturday another new member joined the club - Lyndell W (oops sorry can't quite remember the name properly. He is 14. He did several flights on Saturday with Rob de Jarlais. Hope to see him back again soon.

The weekend was the annual tuggies gathering, where we were briefed by Ian Barraclough on towing two gliders at ones, and also about procedures to be followed in the case of a tug breakdown, and what maintenance we can do ourselves. This was followed by croquet chez Dircks, which I missed. Then a meal perfectly cooked and presented by Jan Dircks with some of the guests doing a turn. Jan can only cope with a limited number of people, so Tug Pilots get first refusal of tickets for this function.

Spent Sunday doing housework :-(

1 September 2009

Maintenance week is over now, and four Form 2 inspections completed on Club Gliders, several private gliders done also. Weather during the week was perfect most of the time - a couple of days were a bit hot for comfort. As well as getting lots of work done, we all had a fun time, thanks to the superb catering put on by Wendy Medlicott and Marga Tilly with assistance from Maria Hackett. Not having to worry about cooking in the evenings really helps, and means everyone eats together which is sociable!

The weather turned a bit unpleasant on Saturday, with thunder and showers, which meant we were not able to get the evaluation flights on all the gliders done. Please check the Maintenace Release for a pilot signature before flying the LS6 or Puchatek or Junior. The Junior is not finished yet - the fuselage is at Ray Tilley's in Armidale where he is doing a couple of fibreglass repairs but I am sure it will be back in the air soon.

Spring is really here now - I found a frog sitting on the engine of my Jabiru this morning, and Wendy Gardner relocated three from the Ladies toilet last weekend! The ants are all back in action, and there are plenty of blowies about. All the Kanga's seem to have baby Roos!

I shifted my weekend forward by a day this week, and Ken Flower very kindly covered for me on Monday. Richard Fethers is at the club getting current again with his partner Lisa. Both are highly skilled at splicing rope - very useful!

I spent 11 hours on the road on Sunday towing my glider to Temora and then driving back to Cowra - what a marathon. After dashling about all day at Cowra on Monday, I drove back to Keepit in the evening - another 51/2 hours - except I had to stop to sleep a couple of times so it took longer. Missed an enormous roo by inches - I slammed on the anchors and he panicked and hopped faster so contact was avoided. Lots of dead ones on the roads.

About 10 km west of Gunnedah at about 3 am I was lucky enough to see a koala crossing the road. I slowed down - so did he. I stopped - so did he. (or she) He sat on the white line in the middle of the road just looking at me - only about 10 feet away. Before I could get to my camera though he ambled off on his way. Thats only the second one I've ever seen in the wild in 20 years!

Today was sunny and warm after a cold start - clouds over the hills but a bit stable around the airfield. Al Giles flew a passenger from the Caravan park, and I flew with Richard a couple of times. The people in the caravan park are talking to one another and we seem to be getting a stream of passenger flights. Conditions were soarable but not exactly exciting. Geoff Neely very kindly came out at short notice to tow. I did the evaluation flight on the LS7 - a pleasant end to the day.

Things are starting to move again here - people booking courses and others getting current. September looks like being quite busy.

13 August 2009

Beautiful sunny day! Not much cu about, and a westerly breeze - I think it would have been soarable.

John Hoye came out to the airfield as we had a vist from 61 Probus members from Gunnedah and Narrabri. They just wanted to "look around". Not quite sure what to do with so many visitors all at once we came up with a plan. Set up about 30 white chairs in the Flight cente around the computer screen, and moved the white board in front of the window. Hooked up my laptop to the computer screen so we could show a DVD. We had a few to choose from - John Clarks promotional one, Matthew Minter's "Learning to fly" and the GFA's Gliding Downunder. We divided the people up into two groups, one lot in the flight centre, the other looking around the gliders and tug.

I showed my lot the GFA's DVD, because the commentary said all the things I would have said if I'd been giving them a talk. Also told them about our operation here and invited questions - there were quite a few. Then showed them round the hangars, and John took his lot into the flight center. He used Matthew's video.

At the end we showed them a launch - John Hoye towed and I flew the grob with my friend Val, who is visiting at the moment. Managed to land right in front of the audience - what a pose!!

The all seemed very happy, and I gave out quite a few cards and leaflets - they all have kids and grandkids who may want to fly. A few seemed quite interested for themselves. One of the people was a retired LAME, and another used to fly Pawnees!

It was 4pm by the time Val and I launched, there was a tiny bit of lift about, so I think it would have been OK earlier.

Successful day's PR, many thanks to John - could not possible have coped with the numbers single handed.

Looking good for Friday

11 August 2009

Very ordinary weather here today. Thunderstorms and showers, and strong winds. Occasional sunny periods though. Kangaroos seem to be enjoying it

Made a new control column boot for the Junior out of grey vinyl and sewed it in place on the seat pan. Looks quite spiffy. New canopy cover next on the list.

Spent much of the day printing out ADs and ANs as a reference for our upcoming maintenance week - not the most exciting job.

Committee meeting (by phone conference) this evening - finished in record time. We must be getting more efficient - I hope.

Spring must be on the way though, because the ants are back in my kitchen and there are flies about. Pattersons curse is springing up along the runways. No frogs in the toilets yet - thats the real sign that the weather is warming up.

10th August 2009

Another quiet day at Keepit.

Flew home without incident on Saturday, and called in at PG Aviation to see the progress of my Brumby. Now sitting on its undercarriage (tailwheel of course) waiting for installation of instruments before final assembly.

Meanwhile Vic and Ken Flower flew to Armidale in Ken's Grob 109 to get our Callair back. They must have been successful, because its sitting in the hangar now. Its all ready to go. Vic Hatfield, Ken Flower, Chris and Errol Carr and especially Todd Clark have been helping with the work on it to try to keep the costs down. We owe you all a big vote of thanks.

Lots of niggles have been fixed - it should be easier to start now, and the next 100 hourly, which is likely to fall in the middle of the flying season should be a breeze.

On Sunday it appears to have been pretty quiet, but there was one Air Experience Flight, and Al Giles did some instructor training with John Hoye. I believe he is now a fully fledged AEI - great news. Now we just have to hope there's not too much swine flu about so he can come to the club and do some flying.

Flew back to Keepit this morning - bit of excitement on the radio - someone gave a Pan Pan call. Sounded as if their engine was packing up and he was trying to make it to Katoomba. Not a nice area for a forced landing. I didn't hear how it went - I hope they made it OK. Other than that, all quiet. Why is it that I get headwinds on the way home, and headwinds again on the way back?

Harry needs as many volunteers as possible to come out and try the new winch. I would like to be able to use it during a course I am planning to run on 7 September. He says that Thursday and Friday look like being good days. If we get a few takers his is prepared to make the trek up to Keepit from the coast again to get us going on it.

In the meantime, anyone feeling desperate for some aviation can come out and be launched by me, as long as they are current. If you need an AFR, give me some notice so I can arrange a tuggie.

7 August 2009

Pretty quite here at the club at the moment. The weather has been absolutely beautiful, and there are some fantastic cus in the sky today. Makes you wish you had a self launching glider!

I have been pottering around doing odd jobs, trying to fix things and sorting the tools out - a never ending job. Also making a start on the Junior form 2.

Went to CASA briefing on "Airmanship" and "Operations at non-towered aerodromes" at Gunnedah Aero Club last night. Geoff Neely also attended. Good opportunity to catch up with GAC members and a free BBQ.

Todd Clark Vic Hatfield Ken Flower, Chris And Errol Carr have been beavering away at Armidale on the Tugg, doing the "menial" jobs as Vic puts it, so save the club some money. I bet it was cold up there. Anyway the word is that it should be ready to come back to Keepit by lunchtime on Saturday, and Ken and Vic between them are ferrying it back. Vic is now endorsed to fly Ken's G109 so they will go up to Armidale in that on Saturday morning.

Been getting some enquiries for training - things are starting to pick up again. The cross country season will be upon us again before you know it, so better get those Annual Flight Reviews done. Everyone should be winch endorsed too - we are really lucky here to have the option of both types of launching available.

And more good news - Juho is coming back to tow for us next summer.

Jenny

4 August 2009

Ian Barraclough and Al Giles in residence. The day dawned sunny after a very cold night, but a little high cloud around. Blipmaps indicated there might be thermals to about 5000ft, but it didn't look that promising. Wind forcast to be more or less straight up the strip.

Ian wanted to get current winch launching again, so once again Garry Speight came out. What would we do without him? He was able to bring the green car back from Manilla, and Ian took him back in the evening.

While waiting for Garry to arrive, we set up the winch at got the Grob out. Launched Al Giles solo in it - for the usual 7 minute circuit. Then Garry and Ian took to the air, and soared for three quarters of an hour. They reported gentle climbs to 4000 ft. There was some cu over the hills toward Manilla, but nothing over the strip here. That used up the days supply of thermals it would appear. Al had another launch and then Ian and Garry again, then we packed up and adjourned to the shade sail for hot bread!

3 August - catch up

Its been fairly quiet at the club since I got back from UK.

My first week back, the weather was pretty cold and miserable. The committee decided to get some work done on the tug while things were quiet, so I flew it up to Armidale, met Todd there who drove me back to Keepit. Todd has been doing heaps of work on the aeroplane up there.

We brought back the Puchatek fuselage, and eventually managed to get it off the trailer. It's still sitting derigged in the tug hangar - thought we might as well do the Form 2 before we rig it again.

Transferred the Junior to the tug hangar too - it needs its form 2. Retrieved the fuselage cradle from Tamworth - it was in the "mobile sign" i.e the trailer.

There have been some quite nice looking days - Garry Speight took up a couple of joyflight people on the winch and managed to soar for 1/2 hour, despite the late start. Next day he flew with Lauren Goddard who needs to get a winch endorsement. Lauren had been having a few problems with landings in the Grob - I warned Garry about this, and she then proceeded to do 5 perfect ones!

We are still using the old winch, as Harry's had a problem with the lead in gear - which is now fixed, but not yet returned to Lake Keepit. I am hoping to become endorsed to fly and drive the new winch soon. I am getting very good at getting the old winch out and putting it away again. Winch launching is a sociable activity in winter, and heaps cheaper than aerotowing.

Gabrielle Kalkbrenner earned a heap of brownie points one day stamping over 1000 payment envelopes with the correct BSB and account number. John Clark earned some more by soldering the connector on to the battery lead in the Grob, which had come adrift. However he lost half of them again by complaining about the connector!

Al Giles helped me clean all the gunk off the winch so that we could try to see where the oil is leaking from, and also tied some rops to the tie down cable down near the yellow windsock on runway 14.

Lauren and Warren (dad) Goddard helped Garry and I to de-rig the Junior after flying last week.

I still need a gang of people to erect the new yellow windsock on runway 14 - will probably need about 4 people to do it.

UK Holiday

Something to be said for getting on the plane dog tired. Slept nearly all the way the the UK and arrived quite fresh! Met by my partner, John, who took me to Croydon, where we both grew up! A trip down memory lane.

Spent the rest of my holiday in Dorset apart from a weekend in Shropshire visiting rellies. First day in Dorset was sunny, and we went to the beach, which sported lots of people enjoying the sunshine wearing swimming gear. Trouble is the wind was freezing - I needed my fur coat! Weather was hot later on by UK standards - 32 degrees C and they were warning everyone about the dangers of heatstroke! I must have got acclimatized because I actually braved swimming in the sea one day.

On one weekend we visited Dorset Gliding club, where Peter Robinson allowed me to fly his cirrus. It was a quiet weekend there, so the winch was not operating. I took an aerotow to 2000 ft, and glided down to cloudbase at 1500 ft. Some circling in zero lift extended the flight to about 20 min. Then Peter derigged his glider again and put it away and that was that! We don't know how lucky we are here both with weather and hangar space. John had a flight with an instructor in a K13, and we had a good yak to the club members.

Time went all too quickly, and I was soon on my way back to Aus. Slept most of the way again, and didn't really suffer much from jet lag at all.

Week ending 19 July 09

Raining in Cowra on Sunday but cleared up enough for me to attemp to fly back to lake keepit on Sunday afternoon. 3 students booked in for a course on Monday, so wanted to make sure I got back on time.

However there was a strong headwind, and showers of rain, and as I got to Coolah it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to get through the weather and make it to Keepit by last light. Coolah was an option, but nothing there - had just enough time to beetle back to Mudgee, got there at sunset. Groundspeed of 135kts!

Luckily there was a committee meeting of the Aeroclub in progress, and even more luckily they had done up their accommodation on the airfield - I was able to stay there in comfort ready for an quick gettaway on Monday morning.

Once again the weather gods stymied me - fog in the morning and my Jabiru was covered with a thick layer of ice! Took a while to scrape it all off. Fog lifted and I was able to get back to Lake Keepit by about 10.15. Rob de Jarlais had been looking after the students.

Robs towing permit had expired, so I was tuggie, he instructor. First job was to put the tug back together - battery had been run flat and was on charge - took a bit of reassembling. Once that was done we were able to get flying.

Chris Bowman did a couple of checks with Rob in the Puchatek and went solo again. His goal was to get his A certificate, and so a solo soaring flight. He achieved both of those goals before he went home on Wednesday night.

Garth Patterson and Paul Bennett were the students for the week. Garth is a very big man, and Paul already has a GA licence, so we used the Grob for their training, despite its being a little more difficult to fly than the Puchatek. By wednesday Rob told me they were both doing well - I could tell by the aerotow performance.

The weather all week was sort of overcast, with a bit of an easterly wind, but soaring was possible for a short time each day.

On Thursday Phil Anderton came out to revalidate Rob's towing permit, so we changed places and I continued with the instruction. Both pilots flying to a very similar standard. Paul was able to experience soaring flight for a change - he had only done a head of short winch flights at Central Coast Club before.

On Friday at the end of the day, I sent both of them solo in the Grob, and they handled it very well. By way of celebration we were all invited for minestrone soup and croquet chez Dircks.

During the week my friend Val Wallington visited me at the club after a long trip overseas. It was great - she cooked dinner for me, and I managed to get her tax returns done! Very busy week for me.

Writing this at Sydney Airport on my way to UK for a holiday - spent most of the night packing, so feeling a bit tired! Weather in Sydney is miserable - I wouldn't fly in it. Remains to be seen if the A380 will! It was quite sunny in Tamworth.

Tug needs an oil change and Junior a form 2 inspection if anyone feeling keen!

Regards

Jenny