I wasn't completely convinced when I showed up at 9:00am today at the clubhouse. Only our trusted instructors and 4 others. The logburner was roaring with the usual crew around it, while outside we had high wind, a low cloudbase and rain with hail. Countering the general feeling, Duty Instructor Peter Smith announced he had toured the site and still hoped it would be flyable a bit later. After the briefing, our delay was filled with Peter inspecting the area above the roof soffits for damage (yes, there is) while other minor site projects were conducted.
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| Logburner was roaring (Tom Sides) |
With K21 KEK, still in the workshop for inspection, we pulled out K21 HCX and elected to use the DG505 due to the forecast of 26kt gusts. And despite my recent plea for two Juniors to be readied for use, I countered that by saying we didn't have enough people. By 11:00 enough others had arrived to justify winching.
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| Up to cloudbase (Peter Smith) |
The first few flights were unspectacularly short, but then Peter took new member Heidi Thiemann on a lengthy soaring journey in JZK. This was followed by Dave Perriam helping the treasury as he clocked up a 67 minute flight and Shaun Dayman having 55 minutes in the Junior (Yes, I had agreed that we needed to DI at least one Junior). Soaring flights continued all the way until after 5pm. Not only did everyone who came get to fly, some flew twice and a few flew three times!
It turned out to be a much better day than we anticipated and just goes to show that you have to turn up to play! - Tom Sides
And in the evening, congratulations to Andy Broderick who completed his FRTOL with James Smart.
