Tuesday was rather windy from the east - only Rowland flew in the Junior. He soared for an hour or so but got a bit far down wind so came back and landed. Wind speed increased as the day went on so no one else flew. John Trezise and Gerhard worked on reinstalling the Jantar radio which has been repaired and installed another boom mike.
On Wednesday the forecast was for more strong winds from the east but we thought they would moderate later. As it turned out, the winds were not too bad but the thermals were excellent and good cu. Lift everywhere.
Rowland took off first in the Junior at about mid-day. His aim was to do his five hours for silver C and also the 50km distance. Geoff Neely came out to help out with outlanding practice retrieves as Juho is not paddock rated. I managed to prize John Trezise away from his work installing a new radio in the Grob to do an outlanding check. It was a first time landing in a new paddock for both of us, but it went quite well. Geoff came and towed us out again, and we practiced flying level and descending on aerotow as well.
Ken Flower came out to start the form 2 on his Pik 20E, and he did a couple of training flights with my friend John while he was here.
Gerhard flew today, and did over 300 km - a good day.
1800 came and went and still no sign of the Junior. No radio contact, but some static led us to believe it was still airborne. Eventually I became worried when it didn't turn up, and went to search in the Jabiru. Flew to Gunnedah and back - no sign. Landed just before last light getting very worried about having to tell Rowland's wife that we had lost him! However just as I was putting the Jabiru away, a car drove in and it was a gentleman from Gunnedah bringing Rowland back safe and sound. He had flown for 61/2 hours, not sure if hes got the 50km yet till we see the logger. What a relief! Robin Rowland and Al Giles went with the trailer to retreive the glider as it wasn't tied down. Thanks Robin for another retrieve, and thanks Clayton for driving Rowland back all the way from Gunnedah.
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