The weekend started with Friday flying and recorded a total of almost 50 launches and 38 hours in club aircraft, also some personal bests. 24 launches on Saturday and 18 launches on Sunday with 8 students over the Saturday and Sunday. With the excellent weather on all three days brought out the best in everyone, from a packed house at the Saturday morning briefing to a Silver C claim by Mark Rowe (finally) and a Silver C height and 5 hours by Cameron Rowe. Dave Pickles test flew the PIC with new winglets and the first lessons for all 5 scholarship students. Thanks to all those who helped out to make this work so well, on the ground and in the air. More Happy Days to come.

D Hamilton.

“Hey Dave!”
“Yes, Jeff?”
“If we had one more feller, we could apply for the job!”
[Ask Mick to explain the joke to you, with his best Irish accent.]

The main topic of conversation at the club this weekend was the theory that the weather we have had this summer is exactly like the summer of 1984. This is a good thing because the late 80s had many great gliding days, with excellent soaring conditions. If the next few years are good, then you can trace it back to this prediction now.

We had an absolutely fantastic storm on Saturday evening. The rain was coming in horizontally. The small dinner party at the caravans had to relocate to the clubhouse to get enough table space under cover. The power was also knocked out for an hour over dinner but fortunately it came back on just in time to put the kettle on for coffee after dinner.

The weather is (un)fortunately very good for growing grass. The strip has now been mowed in its entirety, thanks to Mick and Dieter.

Of course, the weather is not so good for workshops, so it will take a bit longer for the workshop to grow back the cladding that it lost to the mower.

GZL has returned to Warkworth, after some much-needed maintenance. It has had its evaluation flight, thanks to Mark Rowe, and it’s ready for flying. One thing the external maintenance discovered: it had never been weighed since it left the factory. This has resulted in a significant change to the placarded weight limits for this airplane. Make sure you look at the placards the next time you fly GZL.

Over the recent weeks the club had some very enthusiastic candidates trying their best to win the HVGC - Coal & Allied Scholarship. 5 very talented potential students dazzled the instructors with their knowledge and ability. Selecting 2 from the 5 is proving to be difficult and will certainly be rewarding for the 2 successful new students. First to show their stuff was Brad, Mitchell and Alex. The following weekend was Clarissa and Jordon. 

Unfortunately my photographer was AWOL when ready to fly with Jordon. This by no means underestimates Jordon’s enthusiasm, knowledge and ability. 

If you were listening to NXFM this morning on 106.9, you woud have heard their daredevil segment about a glider flight at Warkworth.  They’ve even posted a copy of the video on YouTube, so we can watch it here.  (Remember that she’s acting for the radio and needs to add a few screams for dramatic effect.)

Thanks to Damian for being the instructor for the flight.