I was supposed to be standing in for Vic on Saturday, and had intended to arrive at the club on Friday evening. However my RAA instructor rating test at Narromine happened to fall on Friday, and as I had another chap with me that had to go back to Cowra on Friday afternoon, I had to delay my departure until Saturday morning.
BIG MISTAKE!! Arrived at Cowra aerodrome at 7.15 am to find the plane covered in a thick layer of ice, and the runway invisible with fog. Paul Goard was also there waiting to get away to Temora to fly one of the Museum planes at 10.00 am. The fog hadn't lifted by 10.30 am, but around 11.00 am there was a hole in it, and both of us shot through it trying to get to our respective destinations as quickly as possible.
Once airborne, we saw that the fog was just sitting over the airport, and that everywhere else was in brilliant sunshine. Paul got to Temora 5 minutes to late to fly his display aircraft - another pilot did it. I got to Lake Keepit to find that Little Petunia had taken matters in hand, and the winching operation was underway.
The central coast pilots flew off the winch, Dave Goldsmith getting 2100 ft off his launch in the Ka6e in very light winds. He stayed up for ages and then his partner Jenny flew it - she only got 1900 ft on her launch.
Bruce Paulson was training in the twin astir with Garry, who had really come to fly the tug, and had about 5 flights. Matthew Minter turned up and did a couple of launches with me in the Puchatek to get current, then a solo flight. Bob Dircks gained his winch driver's endorsement, and did two flights with me in the twin astir. The second one he did the launch all himself and he did very well, especially considering he hasn't done any winch launching for about 20 years! Garry's twin really is a lovely glider to winch launch.
Chris Carr disappeared for a long time in the Nimbus 2, WP. Trevor flew an air experience flight for a person who had a voucher, and got away and soared for the required half hour.
David Tam did a couple of winch checks with Trevor before I got there, and later did a couple of solos. He worked very hard all day retrieving the rope.
Harry Medlicott spent most of the day on the winch, but he was training others to drive it. He says he'll only drive the winch if there is someone else to train - everyone needs to learn.
Flying went on all day and we only stopped when the sun went down - so once again a successful and enjoyable winching day.
On Sunday Jenny and Dave Goldsmith and Arie and Phil Endecott all left, leaving just Bruce Paulson and David Tam, Trevor Harry and I. We did some winching in the morning - Bruce had three flights with me in the Twin Astir, and Trevor got endorsed on driving the new winch. David Tam did another solo in the Puchatek, but then the wind changed direction and rather than change ends with the winch, we packed up. Harry wanted to fly his glider, so I aerotow launched him and he had a reasonable soaring flight to Manilla and back but he said it was hard work.
Michael and Bronwyn Shirley arrived in their Grob 103 just as we were putting everything away. I was hoping to be able to get away back to Cowra but found I had left the master switch on in the plane and the battery was flat so I had to stay till the morning. Another lesson learned.
Keep an eye on the chat group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lksc/ for the next winching weekend.
Jenny
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