Congratulations to Jon Keatley for going solo on Sunday.
Thanks also to Anne Philcox for all her efforts flying with Jon during the day. After 8 flights, Anne handed Jon over to Derek Spencer for some final checks before Derek sent him solo. Even though Derek sent Jon solo, it was Anne’s effort during the day (and Jon’s too) that got Jon to that point.
Hugh Round also got his 5 solo flights done for his A Certificate. Rob Parsonage is also pushing on solidly towards his B Certificate.
On Saturday, it was discovered that the carburettor on the winch V8 engine was leaking fuel (and not just a drip or two either) on to the top of the engine. This had the very serious potential of causing an engine fire. The carby has been removed and Jon is looking into getting a replacement seal where it is leaking. Thanks Jon.
Wave was also back at Stonefield on Sunday in a big way. After the wind shifted round to the SW, a big line of wave set up over the Cu out to the east of Stonefield. Anne did get into some lift near the airfield which may have been some rotor. Jon and Derek experienced what they thought was rotor turbulence in KRO on a flight late in the afternoon.
Later in the evening, the wave cloud stretched about 100km from south of the airfield to as far as the eye could see to the north. If only the motorfalke tyre wasn’t flat! Hugh and Derek managed to extract the flat tyre from FQW. Unfortunately it is unrepairable. A new tyre and tube is on the way from Melbourne and will hopefully be here before the next weekend.
Big thanks go to Jon and Hugh for extracting the end on the automatic transmission dipstick of the V8 winch engine which fatigue cracked off in the tube and threatened to bring operations to a massive and sudden halt by chewing up the transmission and spitting out little bits. The club now needs a new dipstick but thanks to Jon and Hugh it’s only a new dipstick and not a new auto transmission.