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| GUSS Training Camp 28/11/09 to 06/12/09 |
28 Nov 2009 |
Derek Spencer will be holding a training camp for Keith, Lisa and six other Griffith Uni Soaring Society (GUSS) members. Help will be needed training them to drive our winch on Sat/Sun 28th/29th Nov. Any solo pilots wanting to enjoy some mid-week flying are more than welcome to come out and join in the fun.
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| Christmas Party Friday 27/11/09 |
27 Nov 2009 |
This year's christmas party will be at Cath Conway's place. There is a pool, so bring your bathers along. Hopefully the GUSS students will be here by then, so come along and say hi to our NSW friends.
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| Flying Sunday 15 November 2009 |
15 Nov 2009 |
What a hot day!! Unfortunately the stability in the air didn't allow things to kick off until the afternoon. But boy, once it did get going it left those on the ground watching in awe as the Blanik and Motorfalke rocketed up to 10,000ft! Thermals were stronger than 10kts. Everything was going great guns until the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped.
Mark Newton came along to help out Derek and Anne (hooray!) and flew with Christian and Matt in the 'falke. Hopefully Mark had an enjoyable time wherever he went, aside from a long way up. Later, Mark took Matt Chircop on a training flight.
Derek instructed in the Blanik and Anne drove the winch. Thanks to everyone's efforts we were able to give all our trainees the equivalent of our aim of six circuits or one and a half hours (give or take a little), which was awesome. Mark's presence even allowed Anne to go through her instructor revalidation!
Take heed of the fact that another qualified person on field could have grabbed a single seater and had an amazing time, while also making things more efficient and fun for the other people there. If you do have the time, please consider making the trip to Stonefield!
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| Flying Sunday 25 October 2009 |
27 Oct 2009 |
The day started overcast, but eventually the sun shone through and fired up some good thermals. Allan and Derek placed some white tyres up RWY 16/34 before we were visited by four friends looking for a good time... Derek certainly had a good time when one of the girls decided it would be fun to fly in her underwear. Lots of video was taken of this particular activity as well as some air to air stuff of the Blanik from the 'falke. We should hopefully see this footage sometime soon.
Allan had a good 23 mins in the Blanik with Derek, and our trainee Steve got to fly two new aircraft types. All in all a different and enjoyable day.
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| Flying Saturday 24 October 2009 |
24 Oct 2009 |
Saturday was pretty much as forecast except there was very obvious thunderstorms building up to the north with some impressive wave over the top. The low thermal height (~3,000 ft) around Stonefield made it challenging with fickle thermals. John Dunstall flew MI and Derek Spencer flew WVA. Both had saves from circuit height on occasion.
Meanwhile Mark Newton and Redmond Quinn took FQW for a fly across to Waikerie and back.
GZQ and WVA were both derigged ready for the Khancoban trip next weekend. Other stuff got done:
- Runway 16/34 was slashed in its entirety by Redmond.
- Some of the cut and painted tyre side walls now decorate the edges of 16/34. We were somewhat sparing till we slash the other runways and see how many tyre side walls are left over.
- The passenger side brake drum on the winch had its master cylinder replaced and the brakes adjusted
- New swivels were added to the ends of both cables.
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| Flying Sunday 11 October 2009 |
11 Oct 2009 |
It wasn’t a very good day. The longest flight was 10 minutes followed by a number of 6 minute flights. The wind was reasonably strong from the NNE and the cloud cover meant that thermals weren’t there. A small patch of blue sky went through in the afternoon (which is when the 10 minute flight occurred), but the flight only went to around 2000’. Everyone packed up early at around 5:00pm I think, as Derek and Allan were getting tired.
Unfortunately, Allan and Derek were the only experienced people on field (and winch drivers) which meant that Allan missed out on flying. He did a great job driving the winch for everyone!
The decision to pack up was made at the right time as a number of bands of rain came past after that and the first lot of rain had some serious bolts of lightning in it. Impressive stuff!
Before the rain hit, a wave cloud had set up slightly east of the airfield up quite high. The wind was still NNE on the ground, but the wind was obviously more westerly up high.
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| Flying Saturday 10 October 2009 |
10 Oct 2009 |
Thermals capped were with cu at 9500. We rejected anything with less than 6kts on the averager. Alternatively, we just dolphined along the streets.
Thanks to BVGC for the loan of the Blanik. We had some impressed students yesterday.
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| Saturday 4 October 2009 |
04 Oct 2009 |
No flying this day but a lot of work done on aircraft. The Puchatek form 2 was progressed by a team consisting of Derek, Redmond, Cathy and Dennis. Anthony and Justine arrived at lunchtime with their trailer full of FQW fuselage. Following a brief interlude spent working on KRO wings whilst the rain showers passed, FQW was reunited with its wings and the aircraft weighed to calculate allowable cockpit weight ranges.
Later that evening Redmond and Derek set fire to a large pile of vegetation in the fire pit and a great BBQ was enjoyed by all.
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| Annual Dinner |
25 Sep 2009 |
The club will be holding its Annual Dinner on 25 September this year. All past, present & future members are welcome. Please RSVP to derekspencer@internode.on.net so we can provide the venue with numbers.
| When: |
Friday 25th September 2009 |
| Start: |
6:30pm – 7:00pm |
| Where: |
Buckingham Arms Hotel
1 Walkerville Terrace
Gilberton SA 5081 |
| Cost: |
$27.50 adults & $22.50 kids |
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| Flying Sunday 21 September 2009 |
21 Sep 2009 |
A very very nice day to go flying.
The wind was a light SW with puffy Cu in the sky until ~1400.
With only one trainee and one check flight there was not much load on the aircraft. Steve Gould (ex AUGC member, son of Terry, brother of Bradley) turned up to inspect the field and went for a fly with me. Highest flight was 4,700', which was also the longest at 44 minutes. Thermals peaked at 6 m/s.
No cable breaks or weak link failures to my knowledge.
Thanks to Redmond and Mark N. for doing all the winching.
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