Weekend Report: An FAI 1000!!

Friday

Those members who attended the ZS-MDF “bring and braai” at the du Preez Wine Estate really had a super evening in the most beautiful garden setting. Hennie du Preez supplied the braai fires and people to do the braai as well as
superb wines. It was good to see the Vliegklub and the Gliding Club members enjoying a joint celebration together.

Saturday

Before I start with the report, congratulations Jaco Hartman for going solo last weekend. Apologies for omitting you from the last Weekend News.

This weekend proved to be a real humdinger.

Firstly, duty pilot Hans Pruter managed very well in the absence of this partner. Hans, we hope to see you come and fly more often now. We had a visitor, Florian, who has a PPL and is visiting from the UK. She is doing some gliding while in the Cape. We also had a few visitors from Germany.

Our own singles pilots, Adriaan Hepburn, Jerry Betbeder, Kevin Mitchell, Sven Olivier (570km), Randy Cullen, Bill Griffiths, John Spargo, Rob Kakebeeke, Mike Pascoe, were all at Worcester braving the howling SW wind. Nicky Oberhofer flew down to Swellendam and Adriaan Hepburn made at least two traverses down east as far as Tradouw Pass. The cherry on the top for Saturday was Gareth Floweday completing his Five Hours in GUZ. Well done Gareth!

Good to see were our “recuperating” members Mike Pascoe and Reinhold Lawrenz, both taking to the skies again. Welcome back both of you!

At last we have met the well-known (by name any way) Errol Drew, who spent the weekend at the Club – welcome Errol! We hope you enjoyed for first weekend at the club.

Unfortunately Quinton Hoole's day began badly when his car had to be towed back to the field. Fortunately everyone rallied round and helped get his family back to town.

Sunday

Well what can I say! Adriaan has finally cracked the “big one” – 1000km plus! Congratulations – there is certainly no bluffing you way through cross country soaring with a lot of “talk” - now you have DONE IT and got the IGC file to prove it. Sheer dedication to soaring has earned you a well deserved place in the CGC “Hall of Fame”.

Well done also to all the other pilots who were out and about: Cornelius, Randy, Garth (397km! Well done!), Martin G (also estimated 1000km but not downloaded at the time of writing – well done but we now expect that of you Martin!), William Whittaker and Quinton. The high wind resulted in some heart-stopping landings – well done all of you – there were no mishaps.

Thanks to all who helped put the Ka7 and Ka 13 away - it was not easy. A couple of winch launches were also done with some very interesting approaches in that strong wind.

Jerry is off to Omarura in New Zealand where he will be doing a cross-country soaring course. Have a good time Jerry – you’ll be able to teach us a thing or two when you return.

For those staying at Cape Town over the holiday period, remember that we will be flying at Worcester (by arrangement) right through from Friday 16th December to January. Tug pilots – we need you!

There’s a pile of renewed GPL’s and copies of the December KK for the non-e-mailers, which will be delivered to the airfield next weekend.

Also of interest, Andrea Schlapbach of FLARM fame is visiting the Cape and is staying with Sven till 16/12.

Alison

Weekend Report: Blowout

Saturday

Blown out!

Sunday

A beautiful day with a light SW and though it did not really shape up to the "gurus’" expectations, some interesting flights were achieved with Sven flying down to Napier and back.

Three students came to fly - Mike Allen, Andre Stander and Jaco Hartman, who each had two training flights. We had a visitor from the States – Adnan Mirza is a Pakistani and married to a lady from the Netherlands. He is a very interesting fellow and flies commercially for an airline in the USA. We also have a new member, Andre Fechter, who has just bought a Pipistrel and will be learning to glide at our Club.

Otto, Rico and Rob K flew their self launchers and Dave and Hubert their Rotax Falke. The other pilots who had good days were Sven, Garth, Cornelius, Adriaan, Mike P, Tom H and Kevin Mitchell (in GUC). Most remarkably a certain Zeppelin Ka6 was seen taking to the skies again, trailing cobwebs!

Remember to get to the field early to avoid a late launch at the back of the queue - we hope to have a second tug at the launch point soon, as all the summer activity is causing a bottleneck at peak times.

Rudi and Gerhard are both working hard on the recovery of GUU - thanks to you both. Horst is turning new bushes for the Ka 7.

I would like to also mention that Hans Lobach is very ill and is in the Vegelegen Medi Clinic in Somerset West. Details about his condition can be obtained from Rudi Schurkes.

For those with motorised aircraft - Stellenbosch is having a huge Fly In on the 27,28,29 Jan. There will be camping, parties, fun flying and prizes. All are welcome!

Fly Safely and see you all next weekend.

Alison

Weekend Report: Adriaan cracks a smile

Friday

Those members who attended the ZS-MDF “bring and braai” at the du Preez Wine Estate really had a super evening in the most beautiful garden setting. Hennie du Preez supplied the braai fires and people to do the braai as well as
superb wines. It was good to see the Vliegklub and the Gliding Club members enjoying a joint celebration together.

Saturday

Before I start with the report, congratulations Jaco Hartman for going solo last weekend. Apologies for omitting you from the last Weekend News.

This weekend proved to be a real humdinger.

Firstly, duty pilot Hans Pruter managed very well in the absence of this partner. Hans, we hope to see you come and fly more often now. We had a visitor, Florian, who has a PPL and is visiting from the UK. She is doing some gliding while in the Cape. We also had a few visitors from Germany.

Our own singles pilots, Adriaan Hepburn, Jerry Betbeder, Kevin Mitchell, Sven Olivier (570km), Randy Cullen, Bill Griffiths, John Spargo, Rob Kakebeeke, Mike Pascoe, were all at Worcester braving the howling SW wind. Nicky Oberhofer flew down to Swellendam and Adriaan Hepburn made at least two traverses down east as far as Tradouw Pass. The cherry on the top for Saturday was Gareth Floweday completing his Five Hours in GUZ. Well done Gareth!

Good to see were our “recuperating” members Mike Pascoe and Reinhold Lawrenz, both taking to the skies again. Welcome back both of you!

At last we have met the well-known (by name any way) Errol Drew, who spent the weekend at the Club – welcome Errol! We hope you enjoyed for first weekend at the club.

Unfortunately Quinton Hoole's day began badly when his car had to be towed back to the field. Fortunately everyone rallied round and helped get his family back to town.

Sunday

Well what can I say! Adriaan has finally cracked the “big one” – 1000km plus! Congratulations – there is certainly no bluffing you way through cross country soaring with a lot of “talk” - now you have DONE IT and got the IGC file to prove it. Sheer dedication to soaring has earned you a well deserved place in the CGC “Hall of Fame”.

Well done also to all the other pilots who were out and about: Cornelius, Randy, Garth (397km! Well done!), Martin G (also estimated 1000km but not downloaded at the time of writing – well done but we now expect that of you Martin!), William Whittaker and Quinton. The high wind resulted in some heart-stopping landings – well done all of you – there were no mishaps.

Thanks to all who helped put the Ka7 and Ka 13 away - it was not easy. A couple of winch launches were also done with some very interesting approaches in that strong wind.

Jerry is off to Omarura in New Zealand where he will be doing a cross-country soaring course. Have a good time Jerry – you’ll be able to teach us a thing or two when you return.

For those staying at Cape Town over the holiday period, remember that we will be flying at Worcester (by arrangement) right through from Friday 16th December to January. Tug pilots – we need you!

There’s a pile of renewed GPL’s and copies of the December KK for the non-e-mailers, which will be delivered to the airfield next weekend.

Also of interest, Andrea Schlapbach of FLARM fame is visiting the Cape and is staying with Sven till 16/12.

Alison

Special Report: A long walk home

Yesterday, four of our highly motivated pilots took to the air from FAWC, with a little help from Rico and Adri. Now we can say that Adriaan Hepburn certainly has become “flavour of the week” with a PB of 975km! This flight took in Renosterhoek, du Toitskloof tunnel and a point far out east near George. An amazing achievement for a still-developing glider pilot, made more special as he flies a “pure glider” and has no way to extract himself out the results of any bad decisions (should he make any).

Martin did 1000km on the same day, but Martin, we have come to expect 1000km from you now! Martin now leads the OLC.

Sven (EY) did an excellent 870km.

Alan – well done to you too, and commiserations that you overcooked your flight 225km out, near George. You get the CGC “greatest retrieve of all time” award – flying SAA back to Cape Town and retrieving yourself the next day (today).

“Well done” to all these committed pilots!

Peter

Weekend Report: A looong weekend

Saturday

I don’t think that we can call it the “weekend feedback” this time because the weekend started for some on Thursday. Looks like the same will happen this week too.

Bill Griffiths took the tug from FASH to FAWC on Thursday morning and managed to do a few launches, which was much appreciated by the glider pilots. Great distances flown by Sven, Adriaan (640km) and Ari. Unfortunately Adriaan's accommodation was well and truly burgled on Thursday night by some thugs who really new a bit about the technicalities of alarms - he discovered this on Friday morning when he returned to fly.

Friday again saw a group of enthusiastic pilots take to the air, but by all accounts it was not a great flying day.

Friday night was our annual dinner at Stellenbosch Flying Club, organised by Wally and Juliana Tamsen. Juliana decorated the tables and Wally organised the spit braai with Phillip, the club manager. Thanks to you both for organising everything. The place was booked out and after everyone was seated, we began the evening's festivities by wishing Andre Leeb a happy 70th birthday, complete with cake and 70 lit candles, which he had to blow out. Thank heaven his beard was just trimmed, otherwise it might have caught fire as well! After that we handed out solo certificates to Rene Heise and Gareth Floweday, followed by the James Gilliland awards to Sven, Martin, Alan O and Peter F - unfortunately Reinhold could not make it. The last guests went home at midnight and everyone had a good time. The venue is very beautiful, especially at sunset.

Saturday was fairly quiet (I suppose some members went to the Ysterplaat Airshow). We had three students and a few singles – Cornelius, Jerry and Johan Gericke all flew but it didn’t seem to be a great day, just hot. John Spargo converted to the Rotax Falke – well done.

Sunday

Word on Saturday evening was to prepare for a “ballistic” day on Sunday. More like the blue-death haze of ironbound inversion! Not daunted, the singles and one DG500 filed into the air from about 11h00, spending the next two hours fighting with gravity and obnoxious little thermals at 2000’. The brave eventually flew off eastward and turned at some alarming distances, such as two hundred and something odd (Sven, Alan), and GEORGE (Martin). The less brave turned at Tradouw (Graham) and the even less brave at 85km.

That upstart Hepburn utilised his “secret weapon”, a hot line to Mr Manzoni in Porterville, and had a rip-roaring trip northward. Kings of the Day were Alan and Martin who did east AND north (Martin about 920km). But first prize goes to Sven who was on final approach numerous times at Swellendam, only to make it back in the end to Worcester, just as light was fading. I think the thought of a relight behind an 80hp microlight at Swellendam, and no fuel available at Worcester for MIV, gave him the grit to fight his way back up and finally home. Well done Sven!

Others spied in the air were Kevin Mitchell, Rob Kakebeeke (first in his Carat, later in his DG400), William J Whittaker, Garth Milne (at Robertson), Randy Cullen, Fred Vernimmen, Peter Clemence, Rico Suter and apologies for the names that have eluded me (soaring was bloody hard work!)

So if the hot-shots can get 800-900km out of a bad day, what are they going to achieve on a good day, which might commence at 10am? The mind boggles.

Come and be part of the flying!

Alison (Saturday) & Peter (Sunday)