Derek Spencer, Genaya and Mark Newton arrived at Stonefield at about 10am to find Jon and Tim Bates already there, with Greg Newbold appearing shortly.
We rigged MI so that Jon Keatley could fly it, derigged WVA so that Catherine Conway could pick it up, and DI’ed FQW so that Derek could fly it to Waikerie to take part in coaching week. By then Catherine arrived with KRO’s oleo, so Derek and Tim refitted it and reassembled most of the cockpit, with all hands on deck finishing off the job.
Derek left with Michael Conway in FQW a little bit behind Genaya, Peter Conway and Mark in the Cessna, all headed for Waikerie. Catherine arrived with the Pik in tow a little bit after, so we all chipped in to rig it.
Meanwhile, at Stonefield, Anne discovered that KRO’s reassembly wasn’t quite complete… and incomplete in a way that needed a form-2 inspector to sign out. Fortunately, Anthony Smith turned up at Stonefield to sign out the form-2 inspector. Greg test-flew KRO with some trepidation, and returned safely to solid ground.
On his third attempt, Jon managed to get away in MI and proceeded to stay up for 1 hour 25 minutes, well in excess of the hour he was aiming for towards his C certificate. Congratulations Jon.
Anne also flew a bit over an hour. Tim flew two circuits with Greg, re-familiarising himself with aviation after nearly three years absence. The 15kt cross-wind added a little to the challenge, and meant that we weren’t sure of the location of the trace after a high weak-link break on Tim’s second launch. We spent a little while looking for it before Greg and Time headed up to Waikerie for dinner with the Performance Week participants.