Friday 29 May - a surprising good day

Friday dawned foggy and damp. Chris Bowman decided to head home, but joined the club as a full member before doing so, and plans to come back soon.

Garry Speight and Rob de Jarlais came out to fly, and we had visitors Gus Furnell and his partner Chris from the USA visiting. Gus did a course with Garry and Ian McPhee in 1994 - before the fire! He works for Vans the makers of the popular RV aircraft kits. Geoff Sim flew IID, Todd's LS4. Jay Anderson flew up with Maren Goerdel, Graham Holland and his friend David Cant, but Allan Buttenshaw was notable by his absence! He was supposed to come up but got messed about by his work. Jay had to land at Gunnedah to wait for the fog to lift - it did before too long and the sun came out.

I flew the tug, Garry and Rob went to Emerald Hill and back in the twin astir, Geoff Sim had a beautiful flight along cloud streets to Gunnedah and Manilla and back or thereabouts, Richard flew the Jantar again - a good soaring flight this time. Jay flew with Maren in the Puchatek, and Gerhard flew with our US visitors in the Grob. Later Rob de Jarlais flew with David Cant in the twin astir, after he and Garry got back. Still soarable until quite late in the afternoon.

Jenny Luff from Goulburn Valley soaring club arrived in the afternoon - she's a recent soaring addict!

Richard Fethers has joined our club as a full member - I'm sure everyone will make he and Chris welcome.

A really nice day!

Thursday 28 May

Cold and a little overcast in the morning - there was no great rush to get the aircraft out. Gerhard turned up - very opportune for Richard as today we made him fly the Jantar standard. Gerhard is the absolute master at helping people to get comfortable in the Jantar and briefing them to fly it. 

Phil Anderton came out to tow for us - thanks Phil.

Chris and I did four flights in the  Puchateck - the tug became rather unreliable and kept waving us off. Other times the rope broke. Strange how that happens when there is an instructor in the back. There was no lift - the air was very still and smooth with just a light crosswind - perfect for landing on runway 20. Time for a spot of lunch, but just as we were going to the clubhouse the Jantar emerged from the quadrangle, so Phil and I went back to work!

Richard was feeling confident after being briefed by Gerhard, and got ready relatively quickly. He took off flawlessly, and took a high tow. Phil and I grabbed our lunch.  After a 20 minute sledride Richard greased on the landing in the Jantar, and was grinning from ear to ear again.  He spent the rest of the afternoon helping Chris and I.

Back to work, and that wretched tow rope broke again just off the end of the runway. One more standard circuit, and Chris was ready to do it alone. He accomplished this in style with a good landing on runway 20, and followed this up with another solo to land near the hangars. Meanwhile Richard did another flawless take off and landing in the Jantar.

Celebrations all round!

Not a great gliding day, but perfect for what we were trying to achieve. Started to rain a bit in the evening.

Wednesday 27 May

Another good soaring day - at least in the middle of the day. Garry Speight towing, Richard Fethers and Chris Bowman flying. 

Today was Richard's day to fly the Junior.  He attacked the task with some trepidation - was worried about the creaking noise the trim makes, so we took the seatpan out to show him what makes the noise. Thus reassured, I left him to it to do the DI and did a couple of circuits with Chris.

Then we eventually got Richard to the flight line, and launched him kicking and screaming ( well almost) in the Junior. I suggested he tow to about 2500 ft about ground to get comfortable in case he didn't get a thermal, and was suprised to tug back so soon. Then I realised what had happened - Richard is used to flying from an airfield at sea level, and had misread the altimeter and released with only 1500 feet above ground. No matter though - Garry had towed him under a good cloud and he was soon on his way to cloudbase. Nearly two hours later he landed perfectly smiling from ear to ear!

Meanwhile Chris and I had a good hour in the Puchateck practising centering thermals, and then spinning down again! Cloudbase about 5500 feet.

The cumulus spread out in the afternoon blocking out the sun, and the lift died about 2.30 so we all landed and had a late lunch.

After that each glider did another two flights. Chris practising take off and landings, and Richard proving to himself that his early success in the Junior was not a fluke! Everyone happy!

Tuesday 26 May

Thursday and Friday last week had rotten weather. Not much going on here. I went into Tamworth to get a few bits and pieces for the club.

Nick Singer, Dave Turner and Darian Thom turned up on Friday night to run the weekend operations. Wind was strong from the east on Saturday. I took off on runway 09 in the Jabiru and was airborne by the time I had crossed the main runway! There was lift and cloud streeting, but taking off would have been difficult for the gliders, and they elected not to fly. I had a good run home with a tail wind! Wind much lighter at Cowra.

Flew back on Monday morning - headwind this time, but otherwise straightforward. Thought there might be some weather associated with a front with a big band of cloud showing on the satellite photo, but it kind of fizzelled out up here at Keepit. 

Some cloud over Keepit burned off during the morning. Richard Fethers from Byron Bay club and Chris Bowman, last week's student were waiting for me, along with Geoff Neely towing and Matthew Minter who came out to help instruct.

Matthew took Chris in the Puchatek and I flew with Richard in the Grob. Richard is unusual in that he has only ever flown motor gliders - and has done quite a bit of flying in a motorised K21. He's here to get up to speed on aerotowing and get into a single seater for the first time.

The weather was very soarable with cloubase up around 6000ft. Richard had a good hour's familiarisation flight. Meanwhile Matthew was able to give Chris plenty of co-ordination practice. We managed to squeeze in two passenger flights - visitors from the caravan park. Then emergencies with Richard and circuits for Chris in the late afternoon. Followed by a sociable evening in the club house in front of a roaring fire, and dinner courtesy of Richard!

Tuesday was another good soaring day - John Hoye towing me instructing. Another couple of emergencies with Richard, then he went off in the Grob solo and didn't return for a couple of hours. Meanwhile Chris had a good soaring flight with me - learning to centre thermals with good success.  He's progressing rapidly.  Another visitor from the Caravan park - John flew him in the Grob and I towed. John said he was a natural! More circuits for Chris until the sun went down - absolutely amazing sky at sunset. We were luck today - the kangaroos didn't come out to play until after we had finished flying!

Great conditions for the time of year!

The week to Wednesday 20 May

Weather at Lake Keepit was pretty good, but a bit windy on Saturday. I elected not to fly home as the weather forecast for Cowra was terrible, and I was worried about getting back again in time for my students on Monday morning. Stayed at home and tried to do tax returns (late) instead - what fun.

Sunday was very busy with airforce cadet flying - tug up and down all day. Weather clouded over - the indian summer seems to be over.

My students  turned up on Monday morning. Conditions were blustery and cool with a brisk easterly wind, and we were unable to soar. However we did some training - 3 flights each, and both doing well. However the heavens opened on Tuesday, and they wisely decided to go home and return next week instead.  We had a long committee meeting by phone conference on Tuesday evening

Today, Wednesday, has been cold, wet and miserable - but suprisingly people are still contacting me wanting to learn to fly in winter! Good news. 

The weather is forecast to clear up by the weekend, so I hope it will be fine again next week because there's quite a bit on.

Thursday & Friday last week (15, 16 May)

The usual suspects came out to the airfield on Thursday to help test Harry's winch. Present were John Hoye, Vic Hatfield, Harry Medlicott, Peter Shiels, Ken Flower, Trevor West, Geoff Sim and Bob Dircks.

Geoff and Bob were working on Geoff's White Lightning, but we managed to rope them in - no pun intended. John Hoye took the first launch on the winch in the Grob - but still the engine coughed and spluttered. We all stood around and scratched our heads. There was a fuel leak from the carburettor, and the fan was a bit close to the radiator, but neither of those problems where the cause of the rough running. We thought of the air cleaner - but it was clean as a whistle. 

After another fiddle, John tried another launch - he got high enough but still not quite running right. Enter Bob Dirks - the man who can fix (almost) anything. After more fiddling about Bob found the problem - plug leads in the wrong order! After putting them in the right order and adjusting the timing the engine is now purring along.

They loaded John Hoye and Peter Shiels into the Grob - I'm sure they won't mind me saying that neither require ballast - and took another launch. The wind had turned dead cross about 10kts so they had to lay off quite a bit. None the less they achieved about 1550 feet  from the launch. Everyone happy.

Meanwhile Ken Flower was endorsing Vic on his Grob 109 - naturally Vic had no problem and was soon flying it solo.

The day was sunny but windy - thermals not especially good - Friday was better

On Friday we had another fairly windy day dead cross the runway. I launched Ray Tilley in his ASW 27 and Harry in his Ventus 2. They went south west to about spring ridge or there abouts I think. 

In the evening we were invited to  Bob Dircks' place for a game of croquet. Bob has invented his own version of the rules to make it a bit more interesting. The most interesting local rule is that you play from where the dogs leave the balls. As the dogs are frustrated sheep dogs and love to round up the balls, they join in the game with gusto. Luckily they don't take sides. Harry had never played before but proved to be a dab hand at it - make sure he's on your team if you ever play! It was another really enjoyable evening - thanks to the Dircks'.

Tuesday and Wednesday 12 & 13 May

Cold in the morning but excellent looking Cu by mid-day. Wendy came again and finished cleaning the cabins and flight centre. Looked at the sky and thought someone ought to be up there at cloudbase!

Ian Barraclough turned up in PPH the supercup from Warnervale. I said to him quick, get a glider I'll tow you up. He said no get yours I'll tow you.  I gave in and got the Mosquito out, but it was 3 o'clock before I got airborne. There was good streeting and I was able to follow one down to abeam Mullalley. I turned back, and got some more lift on the way back late in the day, and managed a glide to Manilla before gliding back to Lake Keepit in perfectly still air at the end of the day. Ian was thoughtful enough to clear the kangaroos off the strip for me. 170 km - could have been much further with an earlier start.

Our Mate Geoff Pratt is once again leading the winter OLC competition. He did another flight of more than 300 km on Monday. Seems to be the only one to have claimed a flight in Australia on Monday. He rang up today to find out how things were down here, and if Petunia had been flying, but he is now on his way back home to Cairns, and won't be flying for a couple of weeks. He'll get the shakes being out of the air for that long!

On Wednesday Harry Medlicott turned up to fettle his winch in advance of testing tomorrow.

I did half an hour or so with Ian B in the supercub in pursuit of my further towing permission. Supercub is a bit more of a challenge than the Callair - heel brakes and a windy handle trim and flaps that are difficult for a shortie like me to reach. I thought I had nailed the first landing, perfect touchdown in the 3 point attitude, but then it started hopping like a Keepit kangaroo! Subsequent landings better, but still not as tidy as I would have liked. Good fun. Now have to study the manual. Will finish off when Ian returns on his way back from Lake Eyre.

I launched Harry at 1.30 - should have been earlier - sorry Harry. There was a boomer just off the end of the runway, so it was a quick tow. He disappeared for a couple of hours and flew about 300km, down to Premer, up toward Narrabri then across to Split Rock then back here.

Geoff Sim turned up in his Lanceair, and collected a bird on the runway. No damage to the aircraft fortunately. He has brought back the missing suzuki quad bike, which has been resurected from the dead by Bob Dirks. With care, it will last us a couple more years with any luck.

Students pilots will be around next week and the week after, flying conditions are still very good - all we need is a few pilots to fly the gliders!

Monday 11 May

Flew back from Cowra at great height - bit boring! Beautiful sunny day with good looking cumulus clouds towards Manilla.

No one here except Wendy the cleaner and me! 

I see from OLC that they had good days in Queensland both Saturday and Sunday, and our mate Geoff Pratt flew over 500 km! However he's lost his lead in the the winter comp to Jo Davis.

Looks as if it will be rainy in Qld tomorrow, and another good day here. 

Friday 8 May

Soaring was a bit dissappointing today. Nice sunny weather but not a very good cross country day. Bill Shean went home - he did heaps of mowing on the tractor while he was here, for which I thank him very much. John Trezise stayed for the day, but did glider maintenance - only a few hours left on the Grob before it needs another 100 hourly, also Junior near its 200 hourly.

Allan Buttenshaw and Steve Hedley started the day with Steve's speciality - eggs benedict.  We had a visitor from a gentleman camping near the runway for a passenger flight. Steve took him in the Puchatek, and then flew with Allan. Allan wanted to get current again in the back seat. Then Steve offered me a flight in the back seat of the Nimbus - how could I refuse? I towed Allan in his Cirrus first  he release in what we thought was a good thermal about 1300 feet, but nearly came back for a relight. However he got away, so Steve and I self-launched in the Nimbus. Its rather exciting going over the fence at about 100 feet, but we did climb out and find a thermal eventually.

There were reasonable climbs to about 7000ft in the vicinity of Lake Keepit, and a few cus, but blue all around for miles. It looked good futher east beyond Manilla, so we decided to head in that direction. The air was as dead as mutton - not a blip on the vario all the way to Manilla. The clouds were still some way off, and no guarantee they would work so we headed back to Keepit. Butts had followed us out as far as Gaineys, and found weak lift there, and we picked him up again on the way back. It is truly amazing how far a nimbus will glide.

Back at Keepit we were able to themal up again, and this time we headed out towards Mt Surprise at the north end of the Kelvins. Once again nothing doing and we turned back again. Back at Keepit we could have climbed out again, but decided to give it away for the day.  Over the Dam wall we had a close encounter with a twin engined aeroplane, not on our frequency - I don't think it saw us at all.

After landing and refuelling the tug and my Jabiru, I spent the rest of the evening until dark trying to chase the Park Trust cattle off the airfield - without 100% success. Steve decided to put his nimbus away in his hangar.

The rest of the evening spent playing croquet at Bob Dirks'. Bob (with me on his side as a handicapp) beat Steve and Allan 7-3 (I think). Lots of fun.

Wednesday and Thursday 6 & 7 May

Wednesday there was quite a bit a cloud cover at times during the day, but overall a good day.

Geoff Pratt self launched at about 11:30 am and headed north for the clouds, returning about dusk! He did 332 km, (actually more like about 412, but OLC missed some of the turns so he only got 332) and is currently 7th in the world for the day! He's still leading the decentralised GFA comp for winter.

Dennis Thompson, and ex member, dropped in in a spiffy looking 172 with a yachting friend Ted Anderson. They want to have glider flights, but unfortunately I didn't have a tuggie until after midday, and didnt have time to take them both, as they had to leave at 2.30 to get back to bankstown before last light.  Ted was the lucky one, and I took him for a flight after completing Bill Shean's AFR in the Grob. He said he was hooked, and Dennis said they would be back in a week or two!

Bill flew solo in the Grob and stayed up for a couple of hours. John Trezise flew the Jantar again after moving the microphone forward, and did about 70 km. Garry flew the tug - many thanks Garry.

On Thursday Little Petunia came out hoping to compete with Geoff Pratt. However Geoff had decided to head back to Queensland to fly at Darling downs for the weekend. He was a bit tempted to stay another day, but had already derigged. Petunia was determined to do a long flight - he's got the OLC bit between his teeth.

John Trezise flew the Jantar again and Bill flew the Junior and I flew the tug :-(.

It was a brilliant day, with excellent cloud streets, the blipmaps were right again - they seem to be working at the moment. Petunia launched at 1155 and landed at about 1650 - nearly five hours! 442 km. He reckons he could have done 500 if he had not made the mistake of going north toward Narabri. John Trezise flew for about 3 hours, and did 225 km- hes giving the less than 200 hours OLC a shake. Watch out John Clark, the current leader! Unfortunately he didn't claim his Monday flight in time to score! Bill Shean had a good flight in the Junior touring around the Gunnedah, Carrol Kelvin area. I was able to pop to Somerton to the post office and get some diesel while they were all up there.

Just after Petunia left for home, Geoff Pratt rang up to find out how he had gone - there's a battle going on here! He said the weather looked good up to the Qld border, but rubbish beyond that! Blipmap forecast for tomorrow is good again, but possibly not quite as good as today. Clouds mainly to the east. Maybe a day to visit Bruce Taylor at Kentucky?

Monday & Tuesday 4 & 5 May

Got back to LKSC on Monday morning - beautiful day for flying. Not many around for the fourth day of the 4 day weekend, but those that stayed were rewarded with an excellent soaring day.

Bill Shean has returned to the club and getting current again after a long break. Matthew Minter has been instructing, while I fly the tug. Its a nice change to be in the tug once in a while!

John Trezise flew in the Jantar and did the Manilla Gunnedah milk run. Geoff Pratt flew for miles again in his Pik (see OLC) and John Clark flew his DG 808 cross country somewhere. Mike Zupanc flew the Junior after replacing the tube in the tailwheel. Later in the afternoon, Matthew went up in the Grob with John Clark to do some filming of Todd in the LS7.  This happenned at dusk - it got too dark for filming, so it was decided to do  more filming at sunrise on Tuesday.

I don't do mornings very well, but managed to crawl out of bed at 5 O'clock and have the tug

 ready by 6 am. Then we waited - the sun had to come up more apparently. Eventually launched Todd in the LS7 at about 6.50, with John and Geralding Clark over near the Chalet with the cameras. He had to land out on the other side of the lake in order to get the required shots. Phil Anderton came out to tow him back (I'm still not paddock rated) but had an interesting time.  I had put the pitot cover back on the Tug after refuelling as I didn't think it would be flown for some hours, but poor Phil didn't see it. Then, having landed next to the glider, the crew hooked the rope to the glider, but forgot to hook it on to the tug!

After that bit of excitement, we tried to have a normal days flying, but glider pilots being glider pilots, it was like herding cats trying to get them all together to have a briefing. The siren appears not to be working. 

Ray Tilley came out to install a new instrument panel cover in the Jantar, but did not fly. He did however do a sterling job in rounding up all the "cats" for a briefing. John Clark flew his DG again, Geoff Pratt flew his Pik again, John Trezise did a lead and follow with Todd Clark. Mike Zupanc (from Boonah ) flew the LS6. It was a really good soaring day, with good cumulus. Geoff Pratt said he got 7300ft in the blue in his last thermal. Zupy said he got 4 kts after 4 pm.

Bill Shean continued his (re)training with Matthew, last flight was at dusk. So as one of the pilots commented, I was flying the tug from Dawn to Dusk!

Blipmaps seem to have been quite accurate for the last couple of days - if the trend continues, it should be another good day tomorrow.

Saturday 2 May

Wednesday and Thursday this week were quiet at the club. Gerhard went home, but Geoff Pratt flew and flew. He's posted all his flights on OLC, and now he is leading the GFA decentralised winter comp.

I have been doing the 50 hourly on the Puchatek, but trying to fix up a few little bits at the same time. Cleaned all the gunk off the rudder pedal adjustment, so it works now. Please DONT lubricate it if it is a little stiff to move. It makes the problem much worse!

Tug needs a good clean too - its gone downhill a lot in appearance since Juho left.

On Friday Geoff took a day off and played golf with Little Petunia instead of flying.

Harry, Wendy and Dave Shorter turned up, and have been fiddling with the new winch. Still one or two teething problems, but should get a thorough testing this weekend. Sky looks good.

John has gone back to UK :-( so I'm feeling a bit miserable.