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
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