Easter - Exhausted After Severe Training Exercise & Recovering!
The course ended on a high note on Friday evening with a lot of happy students. I must thank a lot of members who gave their time and energy to the successful running of the course (see the comment on this blog entry for some excellent feedback). I am not going into detail as Dietmar has already done that! The Instructors: Andre, Peter Clemence, Johan Gericke, Paul Troskie, Quintin Hoole, Martin Grunert, Ian Forbes, Nicky and Ari; Tug Pilots: Nina Grunert (every day), Paul Troskie, John Spargo, Frans du Toit and Alan Procter, all need to be thanked for giving of their valuable time. Another member, who really needs mentioning, is Andrew Standring who spent the first few days on the course helping the students and the duty pilots in getting things to run smoothly at the launch point! He also managed to complete his “C” as well as 10 solo flights! Tom and Jesse did a sterling job as duty pilots for the course. Of course, the member who stands out the most, is ED!!! Without him the course would not have run so smoothly. A big thank you Ed! I know how tired you are this morning but your contribution is highly valued.
I must also mention a person who was behind the scenes and who stayed on the airfield for the entire week just in case something should break and that is Johnny! Thanks for all your assistance and – for me – the support you gave to the course!
Now, for the rest of the weekend, the report is very short.
Saturday no duty pilots turned up so a big “Thank You” to Jerry who gave up his flying so that others could fly while he did the timekeeping! Boet, the duty instructor, took 3 paxes in GOK, then took a visiting pilot from Bloemfontein, Walter Walle, for a flight to Hermanus in GZF. Two singles who flew were Garth Milne and Bill Griffiths who both had nice long flights. Jacobus also flew GZF in between his hard work on GUC. Incidentally, Jacobus spent most evenings last week until 11.00pm working on GUC in the club hangar and repeated his efforts all weekend as well. The work is nearing completion and hopefully GUC will be polished this weekend. I am sure that Nina was pleased that the day was not as busy as anticipated as she had “drawn the short straw” and had to tug on Saturday as well! Thank you very much Nina (The guys on the course called her the “Tug Chick”)
The evening saw much entertaining in the Clubhouse with the O’Regans and the Farrels as well as Rudi and Liesl, Horst and Chrystal, Gerhard and Marianne.
On Sunday the conditions were much the same as Saturday. Calm to start off with but then the light breeze from the NW began. Peter Wooley took Susan for her first flight in his beautiful new Lambada – GXZ – and later flew a long flight down the ridge towards Robertson by himself. Rob K took off and flew to Clanwilliam and Elands Bay and back. Rudi and Gerhard flew GZF as did John Spargo and Errol Drew. Rico took Horst for a flight in GWU which, after landing, Horst described as his best flight in a long time! They flew for just over 3 hours and managed to get to 8500’ at one stage! I also managed to take VAE down the valley for an hour. Really nice TMG conditions!
Monday morning the team: Fred, Henry and Rico turned up to do duty but, disappointingly, we had NO takers for the tug. Rob K flew to the KKNK at Oudtshoorn and GZF was flown by Jacobus. Errol was the only glider which flew for close on 4 hours (ed: to Renosterhoek!)! See what you guys missed! I took RMP to Theewaterskloof and back and then had to return to pack up after the long weekend.
Just a reminder of the AGM on Wednesday the 25th of April.
Please cast your minds to the nominations for the Committee and remember that the positions to be filled should be by those who want to contribute to the WORK to be done in the Club. A position on the Committee is not a popularity poll or to appease someone’s egos. It is real hard work and self-sacrifice and a position that leaves you open for criticism all the time by the odd few. But it can also be very rewarding as we have many very nice and appreciative members, too!
See you all next weekend!
Regards
Alison.
PS: The weekend news editor’s position is also open from Saturday the 28th April. A volunteer would also be appreciated.
I must also mention a person who was behind the scenes and who stayed on the airfield for the entire week just in case something should break and that is Johnny! Thanks for all your assistance and – for me – the support you gave to the course!
Now, for the rest of the weekend, the report is very short.
Saturday no duty pilots turned up so a big “Thank You” to Jerry who gave up his flying so that others could fly while he did the timekeeping! Boet, the duty instructor, took 3 paxes in GOK, then took a visiting pilot from Bloemfontein, Walter Walle, for a flight to Hermanus in GZF. Two singles who flew were Garth Milne and Bill Griffiths who both had nice long flights. Jacobus also flew GZF in between his hard work on GUC. Incidentally, Jacobus spent most evenings last week until 11.00pm working on GUC in the club hangar and repeated his efforts all weekend as well. The work is nearing completion and hopefully GUC will be polished this weekend. I am sure that Nina was pleased that the day was not as busy as anticipated as she had “drawn the short straw” and had to tug on Saturday as well! Thank you very much Nina (The guys on the course called her the “Tug Chick”)
The evening saw much entertaining in the Clubhouse with the O’Regans and the Farrels as well as Rudi and Liesl, Horst and Chrystal, Gerhard and Marianne.
On Sunday the conditions were much the same as Saturday. Calm to start off with but then the light breeze from the NW began. Peter Wooley took Susan for her first flight in his beautiful new Lambada – GXZ – and later flew a long flight down the ridge towards Robertson by himself. Rob K took off and flew to Clanwilliam and Elands Bay and back. Rudi and Gerhard flew GZF as did John Spargo and Errol Drew. Rico took Horst for a flight in GWU which, after landing, Horst described as his best flight in a long time! They flew for just over 3 hours and managed to get to 8500’ at one stage! I also managed to take VAE down the valley for an hour. Really nice TMG conditions!
Monday morning the team: Fred, Henry and Rico turned up to do duty but, disappointingly, we had NO takers for the tug. Rob K flew to the KKNK at Oudtshoorn and GZF was flown by Jacobus. Errol was the only glider which flew for close on 4 hours (ed: to Renosterhoek!)! See what you guys missed! I took RMP to Theewaterskloof and back and then had to return to pack up after the long weekend.
Just a reminder of the AGM on Wednesday the 25th of April.
Please cast your minds to the nominations for the Committee and remember that the positions to be filled should be by those who want to contribute to the WORK to be done in the Club. A position on the Committee is not a popularity poll or to appease someone’s egos. It is real hard work and self-sacrifice and a position that leaves you open for criticism all the time by the odd few. But it can also be very rewarding as we have many very nice and appreciative members, too!
See you all next weekend!
Regards
Alison.
PS: The weekend news editor’s position is also open from Saturday the 28th April. A volunteer would also be appreciated.
posted by CGC Reporter at 10.4.07
1 Comments:
Hi Alison,
thanks to you and to the CGC for organising the fantastic April Gliding ab initio Course and many of the executive people of the Club being present on various days. The course was excellent for many reasons and I was impressed with the dedication, professionalism and Esprit de Corps of everyone of the CGC I met during this week. The positive, calm attitude and the constructive comments of all the instructors when we sukkeled and screwed up in flight was refreshing and appreciated!
Please convey my thanks to all the people involved:
from the catering ladies Karin and Leana, to Duty Pilots Tom, Jesse, and yourself; all the many experienced instructors and the Tow pilots. In the category of the latter a special mention must go to that smart young lady Nina who was there the whole week and who was not intimidated by the rookies and their antics during aerotow! Thanks also to Ed who was patient behind and beyond the bar counter. Also to John, your husband, for the little big things behind the scenes and the Group Photo. Not last the Gliders who probably suffered some structural indignities during the past week.
What is even more amazing for today’s money focused world is that everyone made their (valuable) time and considerable expertise available without payment and an infectious enthusiasm for the tasks at hand. Please convey my sincerest thanks to them all. I have been in many clubs and associations over the years and the team spirit was excellent and I believe I can talk for all course-pupils in this regard. The Cloudbase notes (now that I started reading them) are also great, inspiring and informative.
For my part, -you guessed it - I enjoyed this past week of glider flying tremendously. It rates up there with some key high points in my life: being present with my wife at the birth of our children; flying in a military fighter aircraft; standing on an US Aircraft Carrier; being in a submarine; standing atop a heavy water nuclear reactor and peering into the atomic abyss; my one and only tandem parachute jump; learning to ski with 40; standing next to the mighty Saturn V rocket that took men to the moon (Yes Alison, it did happen!!!); sitting in Howard Hughes left seat of the Spruce Goose; visiting the Boeing Factory in Renton, the Sukoi factory in Novosibirsk; experiencing New York, Newfoundland, Waasa and the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze; discovering Blues, Black Adder, Beatles, Bio-Chemistry, Aerodynamics, Apologetics; celebrating 500 000 hours on this planet !; as well as a few other things, but I don’t want to write a book to you about my “highs”. And now flying in GUU, GUZ, and GHB are added to that list.
I hope that some of my fellow course students will also join up at CGC and continue with what was in part a tremendous learning effort on our side. From what I gathered, I believe Vincent was keen to join and possibly Pieter too.
Please keep me informed as to CGC activities by your usual means, be it e-mail or snail-mail. I will see you sooner than you think. (Do you ever fly during the week with instructors etc? Do you fly every Sat / Sunday? How does one actually book?)
I already suffer withdrawal symptoms!
Enjoy the rest of the Easter weekend, arrive alive and fly safely,
Dr Dietmar H Winzker
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