Arrived at Lake Keepit by car :-( . I had to drive up because the plan was to tow the Mosquito down to Temora for its annual inspection - not because there was any problem with the aeroplane. In fact the Brumby is coming along nicely now- undercarriage problems have be solved, and electrical wiring problems solved so instruments and GPS's are now all communicating properly! Only need cabin heat and wheel spats, and I think we can consider it finished!
Anyway Friday morning dawned with heavy frost, but a nice sunny day. Despite all the optimism we could muster, no thermals materialised. Garry rang to put off Richard Fethers, who was booked to fly in the Duo with him on the grounds that he did not expect any lift - and he was right. Richard elected to go home and do some more work after helping with glider launching.
Ian was instructing a gentleman named Peter, who was finishing a week's course, and I was co-opted to instruct in the twin astir. . The Grob was away at the cadet training camp at Bathurst - it arrived back at the club on Saturday afternoon. Juho (Iceman) Rossi did the towing. The tug has a new propeller fitted; it climbs really well, but is very noisy. Luckily you only notice if you are on the ground.
Garth Patterson and Lee Braithwaite were there to be instructed - or rather flown with - neither really needed any instruction. Neither had flown the twin astir before, and both had not flown for two or three months. Garth handled the twin very well, and flew it solo in the afternoon. Garth learned to fly with Garry in about 1992, and again with me last year. It was nice to see him at the club again. No problems for Lee either - he has heaps of hours of flying but it was 25 years ago! Ian and Peter and Peter's family went up and down numerous times in the Puchatek. It was a fantastic day for training in that the air was very smooth (no excuses) and nice and sunny.
Harry and Wendy Medlicott were there - Wendy seems to be recovering very well from her head surgery - and Dave Shorter and numerous family members turned up in the evening. Graham Holland completed the Form 2 on Jantar IZT with a test flight on Friday morning and then departed. Al Giles turned up on Saturday morning.
On Saturday Harry got the winch out and trained Lee Braithwaite and Peter Shiels to drive it. I got elected duty instructor, as there was no one rostered. It was just like being back at work. No complaints though - I love it. Peter ended up driving the winch for the whole afternoon while Lee redid his winch endorsement - he had one from years ago. Many thanks Peter. Ken Flower came out to fly the tug, but as we didn't use it, he did a couple of winch flights with Garth and flew his G109 with a friend from Narrabri aero club.We have a new cadet member, Stewart Kennedy who joined the club and did some winch flying with Dave Shorter and I in the Puchatek - not both at the same time obviously. Stewart is 16, and we hope he will bring his mates along so we can get a group of young people who can run their own winch operation and fly cheaply.
Dave flew with his family - numerous grand children - and managed a few short soaring flights. Garth got winch current again in the twin astir and was able to do a little "thermalling with other gliders" practice.
The winch operation went fairly smoothly but be had a few hiccups with the rope retrieving - at one time there was no-one to do it - but more inconveniently the dune buggy would not idle very well and kept stalling. Since the generator does not work, the more starts you have the more the battery runs flat, and in the end we had to dispense with it and use my car instead. Not sure where the club car was. If there are any bush mechanics out there that can do a job on it, it would make the operation run much better.
We kept flying until it got dark and I think there were about 17 launches in all - plus one aerotow. Harry managed to stay up for ages in his Ventus - much longer than anyone else, but I did see him use the iron thermal once. Its good fun on these winter days to use the winch to keep current.
On Sunday morning I had a good crowd of helpers to assist with derigging the mozzie and putting it into the trailer. Anyone who has assisted me with this before will know what a rotten job it is. Thanks very much guys. It looked like being a good day with plenty of cumulus popping before midday. I believe the winch was used again, - the tug hangar doors got stuck which made access to the tug difficult. However I am sure our ingenious members found a solution to the problem.
I had a very enjoyable couple of days at the club.
