The day was warm to hot with SE winds later swinging to a moderate southerly mid afternoon. Ops were conducted in cross winds on both 11 and 23. Thermals were present for most of the mid-day period with Igor getting Flight Of The Day with 66min in KRO. Sam also had a couple of longish flights. A total of 15 flights with 2hrs 47mins of glider time (excluding FQW ) with only 2 cable breaks.
The Club has a new member – Tim Bartlett – welcome Tim. Tim is a solo pilot who has now been introduced to the ferocity of winch launching.
The Motorfalke starter motor (installed the day before thanks to Redmond) was cranked up and works OK, however there’s reports of oil coming out of the engine somewhere which needs to be investigated – perhaps a seal has broken?
The winch rear engine needed a big drink of auto transmission fluid and a number of drivers indicated that it was not behaving as expected.
Igor had a go at sorting out the mic issues in the pie-cart. It looks like a broken wire somewhere in the system and he needs more time on this – but a big thanks for the effort.
Tom Wilksch managed to ruin the tail wheel on the motorfalke. The wheel probably let go during the taxi. The Falke should be turned very slowly to avoid the tyre rolling off the rim. While Tom didn’t turn quickly, it was enough to dislodge the tyre.
With the aircraft down the wrong end of the airfield, we ended up taking off the tail, and balancing the rear on a tyre on the end of the blanik trailer. See the photo.
Operations finished at close to last light.
A big thanks once again to everyone who helped out.