Weekend Report: Cloud-gaps & paxes
On Friday night I thought that there would be absolutely no flying over the weekend never mind Saturday but, once again, Worcester surprised us with the rain stopping late in the morning enabling everyone to launch in time for the gauntlet. The Breede river was flooded and quite a sight to see!
The briefing again was most informative – thanks to Alan – and his weather prediction was spot on. Launching was delayed until the rain stopped but after that launching got seriously underway with Frans du Toit tugging and the launch point ably manned by the two duty pilots – Frank Dorey and Walter Uys. Grove instructed and flew paxes in GHB and was kept busy all day.
A fair amount of maintenance had been going on in the main hanger in the most unpleasant wet, draughty conditions possible with the tost system on MIV sorted by Frans and Jerry with Johnny at hand and a few of the Falke’s snags being seen to by Johnny with myself passing spanners, etc Rudi mended a cracked bulkead in GUC which was spotted by Jerry. Well done Jerry! Bill Griffiths continued to work on his 109A which is taking shape nicely. He should be putting the wings on soon!
I wont report on the gauntlet because Alan has written a fantastic report in the blogspot which I recommend that you should read. It was great, though, to hear Quinton get back to the red hill after getting low near Waaihoek! It really sounded like a tough contest day!
Although Saturday was a winching day, sadly no winching was attempted.
Welcome back to Andre Leeb du Toit who has returned from Turkey and Tom Heaslip who has flown south for the European winter!
Sunday dawned a beautiful clear day with a fair SE which, during the course of the morning, freshened to a strong SE. Adriaan Hepburn and Henry Barnes were kept busy throughout the day with an unusual number of paxes who arrived for flights. Things got very hectic at the launch point and Adriaan helped out with a couple of flights in his Lambada to keep everyone happy and Adri and Tom helped at the start wagon with the timekeeping. Unfortunately, with so many interested non-members wanting to fly, there were not many members available to help push gliders and retrieve, and those who were on duty had their hands full. John Spargo was kept extremely busy tugging until late and both Fred and Mark did not have much of a break between their flights either. All in all a VERY busy day.
Both Jacobus and Helmut had great flights in GUC flying on the south side of Vic Peak. Sven had the longest flight of the day. It was great to see Chris Ludolf fly his Astir and congratulations to Coen who has bought a share in that beautiful glider. Ian managed to get launched in LW and had a good flight as well as Kevin who flew his DG400 after sorting out his flat battery from the day before! It was also great to see Tombi and Christine at the launch point, too. Otto flew his DG500 with Jurgen Puscher and Rico got his DG500 airborne, as well.
Thanks to Micheal Allen who helped get GHB down to 15 and then did not have a flight after all.
Conditions were turbulent on the threshold of 15 at one stage and the wind had picked up in strength by the end of the day’s flying.
I was very privileged to see – close up – a Bat- Eared Fox run across the taxiway near the cross runway. There is a family of these foxes which have been living on the airfield for a few years and, should anyone see them, please do not scare them. They are extremely shy and are usually nocturnal so I was surpised to see one during the day.. I have only seen two before at night. We also have buck living near the end of Rwy 15.
I would like to say a big thanks you to all the members who worked so hard this weekend to keep everything running as smoothly as it looked on the face of it! It is not easy to keep everyone happy all the time – but we really give it our best shot!!
Until next weekend, safe flying.
Alison
The briefing again was most informative – thanks to Alan – and his weather prediction was spot on. Launching was delayed until the rain stopped but after that launching got seriously underway with Frans du Toit tugging and the launch point ably manned by the two duty pilots – Frank Dorey and Walter Uys. Grove instructed and flew paxes in GHB and was kept busy all day.
A fair amount of maintenance had been going on in the main hanger in the most unpleasant wet, draughty conditions possible with the tost system on MIV sorted by Frans and Jerry with Johnny at hand and a few of the Falke’s snags being seen to by Johnny with myself passing spanners, etc Rudi mended a cracked bulkead in GUC which was spotted by Jerry. Well done Jerry! Bill Griffiths continued to work on his 109A which is taking shape nicely. He should be putting the wings on soon!
I wont report on the gauntlet because Alan has written a fantastic report in the blogspot which I recommend that you should read. It was great, though, to hear Quinton get back to the red hill after getting low near Waaihoek! It really sounded like a tough contest day!
Although Saturday was a winching day, sadly no winching was attempted.
Welcome back to Andre Leeb du Toit who has returned from Turkey and Tom Heaslip who has flown south for the European winter!
Sunday dawned a beautiful clear day with a fair SE which, during the course of the morning, freshened to a strong SE. Adriaan Hepburn and Henry Barnes were kept busy throughout the day with an unusual number of paxes who arrived for flights. Things got very hectic at the launch point and Adriaan helped out with a couple of flights in his Lambada to keep everyone happy and Adri and Tom helped at the start wagon with the timekeeping. Unfortunately, with so many interested non-members wanting to fly, there were not many members available to help push gliders and retrieve, and those who were on duty had their hands full. John Spargo was kept extremely busy tugging until late and both Fred and Mark did not have much of a break between their flights either. All in all a VERY busy day.
Both Jacobus and Helmut had great flights in GUC flying on the south side of Vic Peak. Sven had the longest flight of the day. It was great to see Chris Ludolf fly his Astir and congratulations to Coen who has bought a share in that beautiful glider. Ian managed to get launched in LW and had a good flight as well as Kevin who flew his DG400 after sorting out his flat battery from the day before! It was also great to see Tombi and Christine at the launch point, too. Otto flew his DG500 with Jurgen Puscher and Rico got his DG500 airborne, as well.
Thanks to Micheal Allen who helped get GHB down to 15 and then did not have a flight after all.
Conditions were turbulent on the threshold of 15 at one stage and the wind had picked up in strength by the end of the day’s flying.
I was very privileged to see – close up – a Bat- Eared Fox run across the taxiway near the cross runway. There is a family of these foxes which have been living on the airfield for a few years and, should anyone see them, please do not scare them. They are extremely shy and are usually nocturnal so I was surpised to see one during the day.. I have only seen two before at night. We also have buck living near the end of Rwy 15.
I would like to say a big thanks you to all the members who worked so hard this weekend to keep everything running as smoothly as it looked on the face of it! It is not easy to keep everyone happy all the time – but we really give it our best shot!!
Until next weekend, safe flying.
Alison
posted by CGC Reporter at 5.11.06
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