A fine, sunny and busy day on field that started with a host of maintenance action on the Motor Falke and winch drogues. A new drogue type was tested which self-destructed spectacularly on the first launch – fortunately with the aircraft still on the ground.
Thermals were to around 3500′ with an inversion that persisted for most of the day. For most of the day we had 3 aircraft in the air; we could have also flown the Pik if there was a Pik-rated pilot on field.
Flight of the day went to Brenton Wait with 71 mins in GMI, closely followed by long flights by Igor and John Dunstall.
Christian Medlow learnt how to winch launch aircraft and conducted 11 launches. This meant that for most of the day it was a father-son effort in the aircraft and winch respectively.
A revised version of the new drogue was trialled later in the day with much better success, although there were a few interesting bugs to iron out.
Thanks to Redmond for instructing in the Falke and showing off in the Puchatek at the end of the day. Thanks to Derek for his winch training and drogue making and to everyone who contributed to a safe and efficient operation.