Weekend Report: Marching Gauntlet & GHB woes
There was a fair amount of mid-week flying by Otto and Ed in TR as well as Rob Kakebeeke in either his DG400 or the Karat last week. What it must be like to be retired and living on an airfield! Something that most of us can only dream about. I had a great sunset flight in the Grob late on Friday evening – a great stress-reliever at the end of the week!
Saturday had full teams for both the aerotow operation as well as the winching operations. Nicky stepped in and helped out on the winching side as well and 10 launches were done including 2 with GIG with William Whittaker as well at Grove Steyn. Michael Allen had 4 successful launches in GHB and heights of over 2200’ were achieved and only one cable break. A very successful winching day in all! Even Rob Tiffin had a launch. (His was the one when the cable broke!) Thanks to Rob K and Tom H as well for all the work in that heat.
Alan O’Regan, the “Gauntlet Meister”, had everyone in the WFC Training centre for a very comprehensive and informative briefing at 9.00am. He certainly had gone to a great deal of trouble in his preparation of the task as well as the weather. Thank you very much Alan for all your effort (full report).
Launching got underway with both tugs, NIG and MIV, which made an enormous difference! Thanks to Nina and Rico. We – Mike Pascoe, Martin Grunert, Jerry Bedbeder (until the two of them launched in GOK), myself and Rob “Two-Spat” Tiffin, - launched the field of 7 contestants in exactly one hour. We also re-launched Peter Farrell who had to land because his GPS was giving him problems.
Once underway, we watched with anticipation as the day seemed to turn out a little different to what was predicted. Unfortunately Adriaan landed out at Saron and his crew went to collect him with Ed kindly taking over the timekeeping. They did get back in time to celebrate Kylie Hepburn’s 18th Birthday in the Clubhouse! I hope you had a great birthday, Kylie! Thanks for the great snacks, as well!
This was the first time that Jacobus took part in the gauntlet in GUC and flew for over 4.5hrs. He did well and was very tired after he landed! Jerry said that he had a wonderful flight with Martin and flew up to Renosterhoek and then down to Franschoek in GOK! Mike Pascoe, Gerhard Waller as well as TJ all had launches, too, but did not take part in the gauntlet. Rudi Schurkes did his checkflight with Woxie in GZF and flew for over an hour and Rico flew his DG with Horst Pfleugner after he had packed NIG back in the hangar.
It was an extremely hot day on the airfield with a fairly strong NW wind which made exertion of any kind unpleasant! Johnny brought his weighing equipment and helped Peter Wooley weigh his Lambada on Saturday morning.
Judging by the amount of glasses in the drying rack on Sunday morning, I am sure many celebrated a great day’s flying on Saturday.
Sunday started fairly early with Brian Cole flying his Pipistrel on a great hour-long flight in that beautiful still early morning air! The rest of the day got off to a fairly late start with the training as there were not many pupils. Mike Muller, once again, had a great hour long flight with Fred in GHB. Marion Flew in the Pipistrel and also had a flight in GHB with Fred. Rob Manzone paid the club a surprise visit and flew with Adriaan in his Lambada.
Other than that, Rob Kakebeeke flew his Carat and Nina flew in Hubert’s Rotax Falke with Martin after she had finished tugging. Reinhold, too, had a flight in GLZ with Martin.
Unfortunately a mishap with GHB has put her out of commission for the next few weeks and Woxie is going to repair her and have her ready for the next course which starts on the 2nd of April. Thanks very much, Andre!
This does not mean that we are gounded for training – we still have 2 very airworthy Ka7’s. So – Students – Do Not Stay Away!!
Until next week……
Alison
Saturday had full teams for both the aerotow operation as well as the winching operations. Nicky stepped in and helped out on the winching side as well and 10 launches were done including 2 with GIG with William Whittaker as well at Grove Steyn. Michael Allen had 4 successful launches in GHB and heights of over 2200’ were achieved and only one cable break. A very successful winching day in all! Even Rob Tiffin had a launch. (His was the one when the cable broke!) Thanks to Rob K and Tom H as well for all the work in that heat.
Alan O’Regan, the “Gauntlet Meister”, had everyone in the WFC Training centre for a very comprehensive and informative briefing at 9.00am. He certainly had gone to a great deal of trouble in his preparation of the task as well as the weather. Thank you very much Alan for all your effort (full report).
Launching got underway with both tugs, NIG and MIV, which made an enormous difference! Thanks to Nina and Rico. We – Mike Pascoe, Martin Grunert, Jerry Bedbeder (until the two of them launched in GOK), myself and Rob “Two-Spat” Tiffin, - launched the field of 7 contestants in exactly one hour. We also re-launched Peter Farrell who had to land because his GPS was giving him problems.
Once underway, we watched with anticipation as the day seemed to turn out a little different to what was predicted. Unfortunately Adriaan landed out at Saron and his crew went to collect him with Ed kindly taking over the timekeeping. They did get back in time to celebrate Kylie Hepburn’s 18th Birthday in the Clubhouse! I hope you had a great birthday, Kylie! Thanks for the great snacks, as well!
This was the first time that Jacobus took part in the gauntlet in GUC and flew for over 4.5hrs. He did well and was very tired after he landed! Jerry said that he had a wonderful flight with Martin and flew up to Renosterhoek and then down to Franschoek in GOK! Mike Pascoe, Gerhard Waller as well as TJ all had launches, too, but did not take part in the gauntlet. Rudi Schurkes did his checkflight with Woxie in GZF and flew for over an hour and Rico flew his DG with Horst Pfleugner after he had packed NIG back in the hangar.
It was an extremely hot day on the airfield with a fairly strong NW wind which made exertion of any kind unpleasant! Johnny brought his weighing equipment and helped Peter Wooley weigh his Lambada on Saturday morning.
Judging by the amount of glasses in the drying rack on Sunday morning, I am sure many celebrated a great day’s flying on Saturday.
Sunday started fairly early with Brian Cole flying his Pipistrel on a great hour-long flight in that beautiful still early morning air! The rest of the day got off to a fairly late start with the training as there were not many pupils. Mike Muller, once again, had a great hour long flight with Fred in GHB. Marion Flew in the Pipistrel and also had a flight in GHB with Fred. Rob Manzone paid the club a surprise visit and flew with Adriaan in his Lambada.
Other than that, Rob Kakebeeke flew his Carat and Nina flew in Hubert’s Rotax Falke with Martin after she had finished tugging. Reinhold, too, had a flight in GLZ with Martin.
Unfortunately a mishap with GHB has put her out of commission for the next few weeks and Woxie is going to repair her and have her ready for the next course which starts on the 2nd of April. Thanks very much, Andre!
This does not mean that we are gounded for training – we still have 2 very airworthy Ka7’s. So – Students – Do Not Stay Away!!
Until next week……
Alison
posted by CGC Reporter at 12.3.07
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