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.
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