Friday 30 October

No flying on Thursday - pity because the sky looked fantastic for most of the day. Todd came out to do more work on the irrigation systems and Juho helped. I tried to catch up on emails and tidy up the hangar a bit. All the work on the irrigation system must have worked because in the late afternoon the heavens opened and we had a deluge. Very heavy rain - and the flight centre roof is leaking again - just when I thought we had solved that problem. Will have to get up on the roof and clear out the gutters again. Juho's caravan has been leaking too, and has been invaded by frogs.

On Thursday evening Graham and Marie Davis from Grafton club turned up with a Club Libelle to do some flying. We put the wings on on Friday morning. It was still very damp after the rain the previous day - the forecast was a bit indifferent, with storms forecast for the afternoon.

Graham got into the air by about 12.15 and landed again about 3 pm before the rain started again. Another heavy shower. While soarable, it was not much of a day for cross country. Meanwhile Ken Flower came out and continued my education in the G109. I certainly feel a lot more comfortable in it now, and seem to have mastered the landings - which are easy compared with the take offs!! I didn't actually fly it solo as the bad weather was coming in, but would have felt ok to do so, and Ken was OK for me to do so too. Flying it does grow on you.

After that, we went through each other's glider pilot certificate application, took photos and got them in the mail. Thank you Ken for spending the time to go through this and all the G109 stuff.

Wednesday 28th October

Monday was wet all day, lots of rain - just what we needed to fill the tanks and lay the dust on the airfield a bit. Sam spent some time on Sunday spraying weeds - he was looking particularly for Kahki weed but found very little. I think he did a pretty good job on the weeds last year quietly, and as the spring has been so dry, few have germinated so far this year.

Tuesday was a bit miserable looking with strong wind - Todd has been working tirelessly on watering and pumps - Juho has been rolling the strip while there is still moisture in the soil. Trevor came out to install taps for the tie down area and mark the positions for gliders to park in -Juho helping.

Today was blue and sunny with excellent cumulus and very little wind - however no flying as all the local members are busying themselves with competition preparations. The tie down wires were repaired by Ken Flower and others and Todd continued with plumbing operations. Ken and I flew his Grob 109 with two objectives - one was for me to get a motor glider endorsement, and the other was to check out some of the airfields on our turnpoint list.

To start with I was very much in aeroplane mode with the Grob, and just could not make it go up without the engine, but once we got the first good climb, I started getting used to it. We thermalled out to Boggabri, checked out the strip and came back via Rangarai. I practised starting and stopping the engine several times, as you do in a motor glider, but I think we didn't really need it. We were getting climbs of 8 kts at times - it was a good day. You really do need to allow more height in the circuit than you do with the Grob Twin ll.

Hopefully before too long I will be up to speed in the Grob and will be able to use it for teaching paddock selection for outlandings. In the meantime, its hard work, but someone's got to do it ;-)

Kentucky Weekend

On Friday morning Allan Buttenshaw and I rigged our gliders at Kentucky. Ray Tilley was already there with Marga, and Harry Medlicott flew over during the day. Todd and Garry had arrived the day before. Bruce Taylor briefed us about flying the New England Tableland in the morning and set us a short task to Guyra then Walcha and back to Kentucky. Brad Edwards Pawnee arrived about mid-day to tow us up.

The weather was very unstable, and by the time we started launching there were already rain showers about, but the lift was very good and cloud base high. Heights of 13000ft were obtained by some. Although this sounds very high, the land at Guyra is about 5000ft, so 10000ft sounds a bit low. Harry Medlicott flew over from Lake Keepit in his Ventus and Ken Flower came over in his Grob 109.

Finding Kentucky again was a bit of a challenge for me - the tuggie towed me upwind and when I release I couldn't see where I had come from. Fortunately I found a thermal and climbed up, so didn't have to find it straight away!

The trip to Guyra was OK but lots of rain showers and storms on the way back. The trip to Walcha was abandoned and the gliders headed out more to the west. Ken decided not to land at Kentucky and headed back to Lake Keepit, but all the other gliders got safely back to Kentucky having enjoyed some very interesting flying.

On Saturday the task set was Guyra, Wollomombi Falls, Walcha Kentucky for lower performance gliders, with higher performance gliders going to Glencoe instead of Guyra. Cus started popping quite early, but some of the gliders initially had a slow climb out. I was lucky and had a really good climb off the tow straight to 12000ft, and was joined in the thermal by Brad Edwards, who came over to share the fun. Ken Flower and Peter Shiels came over in the G109 and Nick Singer and Dave Turner flew from Lake Keepit in their respective Pik 20 E and Hornet. They joined us somewhere near Armidale and joined in with some of the task, but departed back to Lake Keepit earlyish as they had a headwind to face.

Good clouds to start with, climbs to 12,000 ft. I overshot Glencoe, not having the proper turnpoints in my GPS and being out of practise with the MAP. When I realised where I was I was 22km from Glen Innes airport, so I thought I go there. As is my usual luck, when I got there, the clouds all spread out and hid the sun, and it all got rather iffy. Meanwhile those who were doing the proper task reported similar conditions and were beetling back to Kentucky. I got very low north east of Guyra (8000 ft - but only 3000 above the ground) and spotted an ag strip which made me feel better. Then I decided the clouds weren't working - or I didn't know where to look under them so flew out to where there were some landable looking paddocks. Luckily I got a good climb there, slowly back up to 12000 ft, which enabled me to get back some where within glide of Brad's strip. A really good climb to 13000ft there gave me final glide back to Kentucky. Phew, made it! All the others got back too, and most of them were able to see the Wallomombie falls in their travels. It really is spectacular flying.

That evening Anita and Bruce Taylor put on a Barbecue meal for us and we had a very social evening, with musical entertainment from Brad Edwards - a man of many talents.

Next day Allbutts , Ray Tilley and I derigged, but Ken and Peter, Garry and Todd all flew back to Lake Keepit, arriving before the dust storm hit.

Mid-week 19-22 October

Juho Rossi arrived over the weekend, but had picked up a nasty virus on the plane, so wasn't feeling very flash for most of the week. So I flew the tug :(

Brilliant weather for most of the week. Our visitor from Caboulture David Austin, having flown with Gerhard on the weekend, took to the air in the Jantar on Monday. He is an experienced pilot who had not had much opportunity to go cross country, and had somehow managed to avoid getting his silver C (like some others I could mention!). So he came to us with the intention of rectifying this problem.

He achieved it in style on Monday with distance, height and time in the one flight.

John Clark and Ross Edwards also flew on the day. Since both of these pilots are good boys and put their flights on the OLC, you can see what they did!

Rod Harris (Mount Beauty club) arrived by DG 400 on Monday, but had a problem with his tailwheel, so was unable to fly on Tuesday. However the amazing Bob Dircks effected a brilliant repair and Rod was airborne again on Wednesday.

On Tuesday John Mcleod (Gympie Club) arrived by school bus intent on achieving his silver duration. As he hadn't flown here for a little while, although very current at other sites, he flew the Junior for a couple of hours on Tuesday just to get used to things again. Dave Austin and Garry Speight flew together in the Twin Astir, but got a bug in their pitot (painful) and had to land. It took quite some time to extract it, but they launched again at about 4 pm and flew until 6. Once again Ross Edwards and John Clark flew their respective self launchers. Not as many cus as the day before but still good.

On Wednesday we set a 300 km task - the blip maps promised good lift all day. Chris and Errol Carr flew together in the Grob, Dave Austin flew the LS7, John McLeod flew the Junior Ken Flower flew the Pik 20E UMC and Rod Harris flew the DG400. Rod had mentioned that he had never done a 500km task and claimed the diamond distance, so we picked one out of the book - the one that zig-zags back and forth between Edgeroi Weris Creek Narrabri etc for him to try and programmed his logger.

David Austin did his Gold distance and diamond goal, and thinking that he had to do five hours again for the gold badge, did five hours! Chris and Errol didn't quite make 300km in the Grob, but not far short (see OLC, I grabbed their logger!) as they were a bit pushed for time. John McLeod finally achieved his five hour flight and height gain - but I thought he cut it a bit fine - five hours and 4 minutes. Rod didn't quite get his 500 as he had to start his motor just short of the Kelvins (near the mine). A pity because as soon as it was going he flew into a boomer. Still thems the breaks with motorised gliders. A good effort nevertheless.

On Thursday the weather was very unstable with storms and over development around. John McLeod elected not to fly, applied to join the club, and departed for Gympie once again. He has also volunteered to help out at the comps, so he'll be back soon.

Garry and Dave Austin planned their cross country flight to Kentucky, Rod Harris took off in his DG 4oo south bound on his way back home. He has been doing a solo "safari". Todd Clark came out to fly to Kentucky also, but got involved with runway works and was late starting. The sky looked ominous but both Garry and Todd made it to Kentucky easily, with climbs to 12000ft! Rod made it to Parkes. Allan Buttenshaw and I loaded our gliders into trailers and drove to Kentucky.

Weekend 17 & 18 October

Drove home on Friday night so I could collect my glider from Tom Gilbert at Temora after its Form 2 and a couple of minor repairs. Great to have it back again. Meanwhile I think I missed the best gliding weekend of the year! Fantastic cu all the way to Temora, and all the way back again on Sunday.

Lots of flying at the club - John Clark did his first 500km flight.

Not very many postings on the OLC though - I really have to start cracking the whip on this again. The OLC now has a speed competition section, so all you people who don't like flying for hours and hours can still compete.

Posting your flights on the OLC is one of the best ways you can promote our club as a great way to fly. It enables visitors to see that we are actively flying cross country all the time. So don't be too shy or too proud - promote the club! If you don't have a secure logger, the flarm can be used to post OLC flights. If you don't know how to do it, I can show you. Unfortunately I don't always have time to steal your flarm and do it for you!!

Friday 16 October

OK so I'm late again with posting the news!

Friday 16th was another very windy day - straight across the strip. However the thermals were very good. James and Sean Davies had another flight each - they coped so well with the cross wind that I signed off that part of their training! However the conditions were not really suitable for emergencies and circuits so they were happy to leave a little early. They will be back next school holidays. James is now 15 and learning very quickly.

Last time Sean (father) and James(son) came, they were always telling each other to "deal with it". This saying caught on between my partner John and I. This time they kept telling each other to "harden up!" I have to say they managed to "deal with" the stiff cross wind conditions very well.

The same day Gerhard flew his Jantar, disappearing for most of the afternoon, Graham Holland flew his Jantar for a couple of hours and I did AFRs with Brian Du Rieu - who had flown in for the day from Europe specially - and Chris Carr.

Darian did an amazing job flying the tug - I reckon it would have been on the cross wind limit. I wouldn't have liked it but Darian just calmly "dealt with it"!

Thursday 15 October

Is it really a week since the last blog? Time flies.

Friday last week was a good day, but nobody flew. Saturday must have been good, because there were a lot of flights on the flight sheet, but very little activity on Sunday it would seem. Apparently when taxying MRP the tail wheel fell off! This was due to two broken leaf springs - one must have been broken for quite a long time, and we didn't notice. Thanks to Todd, we had spares in stock was airworthy again the same day.

Flew back from Cowra on Sunday afternoon as bad weather forecast for Monday. Had to divert around a couple of large rainshowers on track, but arrived safely at about 7 pm.

No one around to fly on Monday - Gerhard gave it a miss - was pretty windy, and I was glad I had flown in the day before. Richard Fethers turned up later on as did Harry and Wendy Medlicott, Spent the morning with Gerhard installing the new longer bowser hose - tuggies should find it much easier to refuel now that the hose will reach to both tanks without turning the plane around. Drove into Tamworth to send the parachutes away to be repacked.

Tuesday was windy and dusty. My students James and Sean Davis turned up early and got the puchatek out. The forecast was for strengthening winds so we tried to get a flew flights in before it got too bad. We managed three, but very little horizon because of the dust - then we packed it in.

Wednesday was worse - strong winds and more dust. No one flew. I did some theory with James and Sean then repainted the nose cone of the puchatek with some nice shiny red paint that Harry provided.

Today (Thursday) was quite still in the morning. sunny and clear, but strong winds forecast later. We got going by about 10 am - and the thermals got going not long after. Once the thermals started the wind started too. Like last week, it was very windy, but with very good lift and cumulus. James managed to thermal the Puchatek up to 8000ft in the afternoon so we took the chance to practice stalling and spinning. Gerhard took off and disappeared for 3 or so hours - his flight is on OLC. Ross Edwards flew the Nimbus 3. Richard Fethers flew about an hour and a half in the Junior. Harry and Wendy did numerous passenger flights with their family in the Grob. 16 tows altogether -Darian did a great job in tug in windy conditions. Rather him than me!

Conditions were very rowdy for the students but they handled it well.

Thursday 8 October

Another really good day with high cumulus, and ripping thermals. Bit breezy from the SW, but not too bad. Easily a 300km day if anyone had attempted it.

Ian McPhee and Ken Flower were working on the Pik 20E known as "Nick's Pick" - I think Gerhard was getting involved too. Geoff Sim was around too, and quietly serviced the quad bikes. Vic Hatfield came out, and we urged him to fly, but UMC, the other Pik 20 E wouldn't start, and instead of giving up and aerotowing, and great deal of time was spent looking at it. Ian had another chap with him who flew with him in the Motor Falke, (sorry I have forgotten his name - very rude of me) and he did a number of flights in the Falke.

Bill Gleeson came out with 15 year old Nicola Jones, one of the cadet pilots. She has her A certificate, but is going to fly in a services competition in Amberly, so Bill was giving her some coaching. The competition is apparently for Blaniks and Puchateks, so they flew the Puchatek.

I towed them up 3 times, and Nicola coped very well with the cross wind and blustery conditions, but unfortunately the boisterous thermals made here feel a little unwell, so only short flights. The thermals were rippers - I had trouble getting the tug down!!

A helicopter which had been flying camp quality kids at sport and rec came in to get some fuel.

I did my Annual Flight Review with Ken Flower in the Grob 109 - different! There's a lot to remember - a motor glider seems to be much more complicated than either a glider or an aeroplane! Still its always fun to do something different, and I am looking forward to do doing some more flying in the G109 soon

Tuesday and Wednesday 6 & 7 October

Flew back to Cowra on Sunday - straightforward trip except that there was a huge rainshower sitting over Cowra when I got there. I flew around it - about 5 nm away from Cowra all the time. Debated diverting to Young, but in the end dived into the rain and landed at Cowra. It was actually not as bad as it looked but a trifle damp! Stayed rainy all afternoon at Cowra - hard to believe it was just a localised shower.

Flew back on Tuesday morning - nice clear day - easy trip. Nothing like the usual pessimistic forecast.

Jacques Graells had completed outlanding checks with Ken Flower in his Grob 109 the day before. Using the motor glider allowed multiple chances to pick a paddock and almost land in it - Jacques said it made him much more confident of being able to do a safe outlanding.

So on Tuesday, Gerhard persuaded him to attempt the silver C. I programmed the logger for him while they got the Junior out, and I towed him up at 12.10. Five and a quarter hours later he landed back at the field, having done the silver distance and more, got the height gain- the whole lot in one flight. Well done Jacques. I sent Jacques for his first Solo last January, and since then he has been flying regularly at Camden with Souther Cross Club. He's now joined LKSC as well, and expects to come and fly here every 6 weeks or so. Jacques silver C flight is on the OLC.

Gerhard did not fly as he was a bit tired he said. I was exhausted too, and snatched a snooze in the afternoon, because I knew it would be a late one doing all Jacques Silver C claim. John Stewart came out and flew two friends in the Grob - not both at the same time of course!

Nice soaring day with good cu about.

Wednesday, only Jacques flew. We put him in the Standard Jantar this time, and launched from runway 27, as it was really windy and straight across the main runway.

Jacques had no problem, and didn't come back for more than three hours. At one stage he was at Manilla at 9500 ft, and got back to keepit with 7000ft despite the headwind. He said there was really good lift everywhere, and he had to use the dive brakes to get down. His flight is on the OLC, but he's used the wrong glider type, so he has less points than he should have.

I spent the day doing administrative things like organising the parachutes to be packed and organising to get the car and trailers registered. Gerhard spent the day trying to get the speakers in the Grob to work properly. In the morning we got the slasher onto the green tractor ( with great difficulty) jump started it and I mowed the patterson's curse from the edges of the bitumen on runway 14. It would be appreciated if members using the tractor for other purposes could replace the slasher on it when they have finished!

Ian McPhee turned up in a motor glider, and Geoff Sim is in residence.

Tomorrow looks like being another good day, if its not too windy.

The Long Weekend - By Phil Anderton

I was duty tug pilot on Saturday 3rd. It was not such a bad day, and it was great to see our hard-working Manager actually flying a glider for relaxation for once. She probably had the best flight of the day - the conditions were fair to marginal, but she stayed up after the second relight (Jenny to Phil: "Hey Phil, this time please take me to a cloud that is working!! - sorry Jen). Allbuts was the duty instructor.

Sunday morning (4th) I got a phone call from Peter Sheils - could I come out and tow because the rostered tuggie had not turned up. No worries - this was a great day too, mostly. Jacques Grealls was really doing well in the Junior, and Al Giles was having a ball taking his friends for mutual rides in GKD. I was thinkig that it was about time that Allbutts got a tow rating so he could tow me up in the LS7! Towing is fun - to a point, but there is nothing like flying a real glider.

Monday (5th) I got a call from Christian who had talked a mutual Tamworth friend into coming out to Keepit to try soaring as a hobby. I promised to get out there and join them (they would be together in the Grob GFP) in the LS7. Allbuts was back on duty (Thanks, Mate!) and he was not too sure about my recent AFR from RdJ - but he cleared me to fly solo in the LS7.

Anyway I got the LS7 out and towed it up to the launch point..until it started to act strangely behind the car due to a flat tyre. I stopped the car and Allbuts, Peter Sheils and Vic H gave me the good oil on how to fix a flat glider main tyre on the ground.

Got the LS7 trailer out, removed the cradle, and we shoved it under the fuselage (gently of course) enabling me to remove the wheel and brake assembly and take them back to the tug hanger to replace the tyre tube.

It only took 90 minutes (!!) and I was back in action. So at approximately 1438 I managed to get airborn in the LS7. MRP took me to 2500' and some nice looking clouds over the Sport and Rec. I bunged off into what I thought was 8 knots up, but actually turned out to be 8 knots down!! I managed to just scramble back to the field over the lake and was lucky to find the "home thermal" over the rock wall at about 1000' - it was 200 to 600 ft up and got me back to 4000' where I was joined by Vic in UMC. We stooged around for an hour or so - max height 7000' in pre-frontal lift - verrry nice.

I love towing, but it is so much nicer to float around in an LS7 for an hour or so.. Anyway, finally a small front came through and destroyed most of the available lift, so I stooged back in sink to the circuit and landed slightly crosswind on runway 24.

It was a great reminder to me of how much I really enjoy flying gliders - towing is fun but it is also "work". Gliding cross-country is much more enjoyable.

Looking forward to more gliding this season.

Thanks to AllButts, Gherhardt, John Hoye, Bill Gleeson-Barker, Peter Sheils, Al Giles, Christian, Ray Tilley and everone else who made this "long weekend" so enjoyable. I was expecting to tow on Saturday and spend Sunday and Monday working on the farm. As it turned I spent the entire long weekend at the club and enjoyed it immensely.

Cheers all,

Phil Anderton

Thursday & Friday 1 & 2 October

Busy days, hence late with the blog.

Been doing quite a bit of towing, while the glider pilots had all the fun. Thursday and Friday were quite good soaring days, but with a bit of over-development later on.

On Thursday John Trezise flew the club Jantar, Al Giles flew his Jantar, Vic Hatfield flew the cirrus - but didn't post his flight to OLC, so he's in trouble! Allan Buttenshaw flew the Grob with an ex-airforce friend called Rod, who he is trying to induce to take up gliding. They flew cross country and Rod came back grinning. Allan DID post his flight to the OLC, thanks Allan. When not flying, Rod made himself very useful about the airfield, running wings and sweeping out the hangar! After putting his Jantar away, Al Giles flew two passenger flights - some motorcyclists who dropped in for a look. Finally Allan test flew the Junior again, and pronounced the trim to be properly set up now, so we signed off the Form 2.

On Friday Allan and Rod flew again in the Grob, John Trezise and Al Giles in the Jantars and Ken Flower came out for a quick sortie in in Grob 109.

On