Club ops Sunday 1st March - by Peter Shiels

I arrived at the Club on Sunday morning under grey skies - high cirrus as far as the eye could see.

 

There were a number of members present but no one was showing much enthusiasm or urgency. Wendy and Marga were just landing in the Jabiru after doing a temp trace flight. Surprisingly, with the weather forecast aided by the temp trace and dew points, Harry Medlicott was able to predict reasonable soaring under the overcast provided the temp exceeded 32 degrees. Area met forecast was for 34 degrees so despite the covering cirrus, there was some enthusiasm.

 

Members there to fly included Harry & Wendy Medlicott; Ray Tilley; Chris Carr with a an old school friend from Sydney; Maurice Pont as well as regular on site members - Robin Walker + Juho Rossi and Bart. Geoff Neely was the tug pilot. Rod Loder  - Geoff's partner in the DG 400 was up from Tasmania but was engrossed in form 2 work on their DG. Nick Singer was around and annouced his intention to fly his Pik 20 but disappeared without flying - back home I suspect?

 

Chris Carr had flown on Saturday and reported problems with the ASI on the Grob. First order of business was to find the obvious blockage in the system. This proved harder than first estimated. There appeared to be a blockage somewhere between the pitot head and the T piece under the rear cockpit seat pan.We were advised against using the air compressor to blow out the obstruction lest we end up with a "blow out" somewhere in the tail fin that would require cutting a hole to get at it for repairs. A phone call to Tom Gilbert suggested that a flexible metal cable (such as a bike's brake cable) be inserted and spun using an electric drill. This did the trick and after a couple of hours in the heat, the Grob was reassembled and ready to fly.

 

In the mean time Harry had launched and found initial conditions rather bleak but this improved by 2 pm. Ray Tilley followed by Chris Carr and friend were next to launch at about 2 pm, followed by Moose Pont in his first flight in the LS6. They all managed soaring flights of up to 3 hours. The less than exciting apperance of the weather together with the hot, humid conditions, dampened the enthusiasm of the others and they remained earth bound. I too remained on the ground engrossed in attempting to find why the radio in our Cirrus refused to work.( I eventually gave up and removed it for delivery to the radio doctor for treatment.)

 

All in all, a generally forgettable day.

 

Cheers

Peter Sheils