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?
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