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!