Wally WORKS!

The weekend began, once again, on Friday - with Kevin Mitchell getting airborne by 18h00 and flying with his beautiful DG400 to Mitchell’s Pass and to Nuy and back to the airfield and landing at 19h00. This makes the rest of us envious, especially since some of us were caught in the traffic- jam on the Rawsonville side of the pass until late and this also had a knock-on effect when the authorities cleared some of the wreckage on Saturday morning. June telephoned to say that they were delayed in the traffic pile-up and, by the time she managed to get to the Startwagon, we had hooked up the first glider for launching. Wally, who was instructing, had two more launches before Nina and helpers packed the tug away due to the strong NW which made the tugging risky. On his last flight he had a member of an Austrian gliding club on board and they had a wonderful wave flight overhead Slanghoek to 8000’ and stayed up for 1hr 45min. Axel, the other pilot, was beaming from ear to ear for a long while after that.

Unfortunately for the rest of us that was the end of the day’s flying and many retired to the Clubhouse for a beer. Peter Wooley, who came out especially to polish his motorglider was unable to do so due to the airborne grit flying around. Rudi kept himself busy with the tailwheel mod for his Ka7 and in various hangers various work was done. A disappointing day for many. I think that the roaring wind, the dust and the heat made quite a few of us a little more grumpy than usual.

Sunday dawned with a moderate NW blowing and many of us were holding thumbs that it did not blow out again.

Sven arrived and together with the duty pilots – Kelvin, Demi and Brian Dean, got the show on the road. (I think that next time I do duty I am going to request that Kelvin is my duty partner – we always get Demi as a bonus!) We had expected about 5 ot 6 intro flights but this was boosted with 3 of Wally’s as well as the expected KLM pilots. (No, Andre, they did not bring their flight attendants along so you would have stayed over in vain!)

Ed, who was flying with Otto (welcome back) in TR, reported that the south side of Vic Peak was working and a few tried this route. Otto remarked on landing that he returned because he was bored. Come on Ed, where’s you in-flight entertainment! Jacobus flew GUC and then landed so that Helmut could fly. He had a wonderful flight for close on 2 hours in GUC. The conditions were definitely improving and Tom had a good flight in his glider.Adriaan launched in his Lak and stayed up for just under an hour. We missed Adri this weekend – we’ll have to wait until next weekend for her regular early morning circuits in the Lambada.

As the wind had calmed a little and the queue for GOK was lengthy, Wally took GHB out of the hanger and continued to help Sven as he was the only instructor on duty. Thanks VERY much to Wally and Sven for a great job done yesterday! The last glider to land landed at 18.50. I think Wally gets the prize this week for doing two duty days in a row!! We totaled 10 Air Experience Flights yesterday.

Jacobus had an amazing flight with Brendon O’Brien, and was reported doing some breathtaking aerobatics.

Rob Kakebeeke was also seen taking to the skies in his DG400.

Generally a very quiet weekend for members – everyone must be interpreting the weather better than I! Unless I am the eternal optimist!

See you all next weekend.

Alison

Rallies & Blade Runners!

The weekend started early with Adriaan doing a great 425 km on Friday after Paul Troskie kindly aerotowed him and Tom, who also flew. Paul then treated himself to a flight in the rotax falke with a friend.

Woxie and POP set the pace on Saturday morning by flying out of FAWC to Nadini in GZF after Ed had kindly refueled them prior to their takeoff at 06.46!

Our first Pax of the day was Brendon O’Brien from the UK, a very experienced glider pilot and aerobatic pilot. I have never seen Martin so impressed by anyone before in my life! Martin’s eyes were like saucers when they returned. The man is a master of aerobatics!

Things hottet up after Alan’s briefing for the Bladerunner contest – for which he really deserves accolades! Well done and thank you very much Alan. I know that all who participated had a wonderful time – albeit not all that easy in the beginning. Launching began in earnest with Mark in TIM (although he did not take part in the contest) then Cornelius (who had to re-light) Peter Farrel, Adriaan Hepburn, Reinhold and Gerhard in GVK, and Sven in the 27. These launches were interspersed with power aircraft landing for the rally and later taking off again, as well as motor gliders – GUF with Boet and Paul, Bill in OEM and Dirk and Martin in GZF. Very busy launch point! Jerry and Grove took GOK up for an hour and had a great flight. After that Grove flew paxes which kept him busy until the end of the day.

Martin Young (all the way from Knysna) had a two hour flight in GUC.

Winching got underway at lunchtime and thanks to the team as well as Michael Allen who spent an entire day helping and then did not manage a flight for himself afterall. The team managed 4 launches without a cable break and Kevin as well as John Spargo had good flights as well as Jesse Roos’s friend, James, who flew for half an hour.

Congratulations to Rudi who did his rotax falke conversion!

Thanks to all those who worked so hard on Saturday and gave me a hand at the launch point. It was also nice to see Horst Mucke and Giso von Petersdorf visit us for the day. Marion and Penelope kept us company under the shade structure while Brian went flying in his Pipistrel.

Sunday started bright and early with the sound of GZG at 07.48 heading for Langebaan. Adriaan and Jacobus followed suit with a take off at just after 9.00am. Martin was launched at 10.10am by John who had stayed over and the duty pilots were bright and early, too. Martin stayed up on Vic Peak, with 2 attempts at the ridge to Villiersdorp, for over two hours. After he landed, Helmut took GUC up again for close on four hours after releasing at 2500ft over the dam hills! Tom Heaslip was not so fortunate and landed after 20 minutes. Mark Siegelberg was kept busy - first with Leigh from Getaway Magazine as well as conversions in the Rotax Falke. First Graham Anderson (nice to see!) and then Rob Tiffin. Alan Procter had a good flight in GIG – over an hour!

It was a pity that Sunday was so quiet but we certainly made up for it on Saturday – a hectic day all round with many tired pilots and helpers. Thanks again to all.

See you next weekend.

Alison

Tugs of Navarrone?

I am sure that Alan O’Regan, of all the members, must be the most frustrated after the problems that we had on Saturday in getting the “Gauntlet” off the ground. Thanks to Adriaan who stepped in and did 4 launches before having to stop tugging due to the strength of the wind. He damaged his wingtip on the second-last landing although not too badly. At that point, Johnny had managed to patch- weld the exhaust of NIG and Nina carried on with the launches but had to stop on the sixth launch when the manifold broke while she was flying. Both she and Jacobus, who she was towing at the time, handled the situation very well and without incident. Unfortunately the Gauntlet launch came to a grinding halt! The wind had been very strong and, up to this point, NIG had not been able to turn in the wind so Johnny took out his “Mark 1” towing contraption which increased the turn around time in getting the tug back to the launch point tail first!

Both Quinton Hoole and Ari Cotton made a valiant effort in staying up but the conditions proved very difficult and they landed after half an hour of trying, followed by Errol in the Antares.

Those who did manage to get away did some very nice times and distances – one of which was William Whitakker in GIG who did a PB of over 300kms! Congratulations William – but that also did not go without incident as William hit a” Pothole” in the sky and damaged the canopy. Not too badly, though, and he says it should be repaired by the weekend.

The entry for the Gauntlet was the largest I have ever seen at the Club. It is a pity about the tugs – Murphy definitely played a part – but at the next gauntlet on the 3rd of March, Both tugs WILL be operational and there will be two rostered tug pilots for the day!

I am sure Alan has a record of distances flown on Saturday and will make the information known should you be interested. Thanks for all the effort put into the arranging of the Competition, Alan.

Marion and Brian manned the launch point very ably with all the effort needed in trying to get everyone off in time and were assisted by Paul Bailey and Andre who were duty instructors.

In the meantime Johnny was frantically trying to get hold of Tony, the chap that does the coded welding and managed to coerce him into driving out to Worcester to repair the welding on the tugs. Toey did so early Sunday morning and repaired MIV but had to take the manifold of NIG with him to his business premises as it needed a little more attention.

So tugging once again got underway, with a small snag raising its ugly head after lunch but was sorted out by Johnny, and now MIV is once again serviceable.

One tends to forget the times that they work non-stop and it is unfortunate that we have had two weekends with snags back to back. It is unusual and we do have short memories as to when they are indeed serviceable!


No students arrived on Sunday and Jacobus took advantage of the fact that he was there (duty pilot) and availed himself of the instruction at hand (Wally) and began his conversion onto the Rotax Falke and soloed as well!!! Well done Jacobus, and well done landing in that fairly strong cross wind, too!! We were all watching!

A reporter from the Getaway magazine was flown first in the Rotax Falke by Wally (at 6.30 in the morning!) and then she had a flight with Adriaan in GXH. She was very impressed with the weekends activities and the various gliders on the field. I took Ed for a flight in VAE – the first time he has been airborne in months!!

Paul Troskie took his 86 year old grandmotherinlaw for a flight in the Falke, too and she loved it!

Rob Kakebeeke as well as Rico launched independently as did Errol and Kevin Mitchell and all had long, good flights.

John Spargo behind the controls of MIV launched Gerhard Waller who had a great flight down the ridge to Ashton and later launched Adriaan.

Thanks to all who helped out this weekend and especially to those who understood the logistical “glitches” which can make a weekend so stressfull.

A special “THANK YOU’ to Johnny who spent both days working to get the equipment serviceable so that others can enjoy their weekend’s flying.

Welcome back to Jerry Betbeder – it was nice to see you – and it was also great to see Peter Wooley and his new Lambada.

Attached too, is a letter that Mark Siegelberg has asked me to forward with the weekend news.

Until next week ……..

Alison