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.
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