Well, congratulations to Liam on his first solo flight. Check out the landing in the video below. (58 seconds.)

The weather on the weekend was almost perfect for soaring. There were lots of thermals, easy to find and easy to work. The mighty Duo was launched with a large camera strapped to one wing and still managed to cover 160km without really trying.

Hopefully you will see more photos from this session in the GFA calendar or the cover of the magazine.

Check out the OLC link on the right-hand side for more details of the flights from HVGC over the weekend.

Have you ever thought about what it might be like if somebody laid out a few square kilometers of ashphalt and concrete to create a thermal source? Something like Frankfurt main airport? Check out the video below.

There’s not much to it - just thermalling around; so you don’t need to watch the whole thing.

And here’s some Puchacz aerobatics from John Parncutt down in Victoria:

“It always rains at Easter.” Nope. The weather was good.

Good Friday started with sunrise over the Pacific:

We had a nice evening meal at the caravans:

Saturday was good:

(The dogs thought it was good too)

Sunday was good:

And Monday was good:

Watch this space to keep up to date with the progress of the construction of the new club house.

Following a ballot in favour of building a new club house last Saturday, we are in the process of confirming quotes with major suppliers and contractors. The next step is to pay deposts to access engineering drawings and prepare a DA for Singleton Council.

The committee has been working away on the plans for the new clubhouse for some time. Mostly it has been a problem finding something which we can afford which is better than the old clubhouse. This weekend, at the special general meeting, the club members voted on the proposal and accepted it.
Next we have to decide where to put it. Here is the current best proposal.

The ablutions and accomodation will be to the right of this, along the back of the current car park. This will mean that we will be able to park in front of the rooms like a motel.

Who would have thought that you could soar 380km on a day like this?

This photo is from late on Sunday, when the whole sky had been completely overcast by cirrus clouds all day and the cumulus clouds had almost completely disappeared. We were stuck on the other side of Muswellbrook and had to take a 1 knot thermal to get up to final-glide height. Little did we know that there were still 6-knot thermals going to 7000ft!

Earlier in the day, this was the view crossing the Liverpool Range north of Scone: under 4000ft, overcast with cirrus and raining. But we snuck over the range and flew up to Breeza before returning.

Here’s the video of Mark’s landing after his successful Silver C flight on Saturday (30 seconds.)

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.