John Patton is now fairly well hooked on gliding, but is also keen on F1 motor racing. While he is here in Australia he thought it would be a sin to miss the Melbourne Grand Prix. Gerhard stood in for me for the Friday and Monday, and we took off to Melbourne.
Flew the Jabiru to Cowra, stayed the night, then off to Melbourne the next day. Stopped for fuel at Corowa - absolutely deserted now - not a glider in sight. Then to Lilydale via the lane of entry from Kilmore. Weather was perfect - no clag at all on the coastal side of the divide. Managed to negotiate avoid all the airspace and got to Lilydale with no problem.
Lilydale is a grass aerodrome and has a busy flying school and parachute operation. We were made really welcome there, they gave us hangarage for the plane for the weekend, and even lent us a car, which was great. We used it to drive to the station. Train to Melbourne - ticket covered all the trams and buses too. So easy to get around in Melbourne on public transport - we were really impressed with it.
Grand Prix and Who Concert on Sunday night were great, and we had an easy trip back to Cowra on Monday - still great weather
Cowra to Lake Keepit on Tuesday morning was another story! Could not get over the Liverpool range at Coolah due to low cloud and ended up going to Coonamble with 145kt ground speed! Was quite glad to get on the ground safely at Coonamble in that sort of wind! Had to stay in Coonamble over night and made it back to Keepit on Tuesday morning. Slow trip as there was still a strong easterly wind.
All quite exciting!
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