When I arrived at Pendleton today I noticed our old Puchacz trailer was parked at the carpenter shack, with C-GJCZ inside. Thanks Jarek for bringing it home. The fuselage is now in the workshop and we are preparing it for inspection by the TC delegate and our club AME.
On a flying note, today we had thermals with strengths up to 6 kts, beautifully strong spring thermals. Come out to fly. (Editor note: you know the thermals are strong when you perform a two rotation spin followed by a spiral dive...as part of the spring checkout...and end up 500 ft higher than you started!)
From Jean-Marc...
Yes, GGC is the proud parent of a glistening preemie named Zulu.
She is a beautiful Bubo Bubo (read on), granddaughter of our venerable Puchacz, shown here at the start of the 2007 season, ready to spring into action.
The family name, Puchacz, actually means Eagle Owl, which scientific name is Bubo Bubo (ours was a Canadian Bubo Bubo).
This species has been known to soar on updrafts, unusual for an owl. It can live for 20 years in the wild and has no natural predators. Man-made causes are the leading cause of death.
So, after mourning our Puchacz during the winter, I had the pleasure this morning to witness the hatching of a new one in the expert hands of Wolfgang Weichert, who exhibited all the temperamental traits of an expectant father.
The most difficult part of the whole operation was actually moving the egg to the delivery room.
Then, everybody was so excited to find out what was hiding in the shell that assisting the hatch was not a difficult decision.
Wolfgang was quick to brief everybody on how to deal with a breech birth. All hands were called on deck to pull out this tall baby.
Once it saw the light of day, it became obvious to everybody that there was no down on this bird, so Wolfgang decided to put it in our brand new incubator.
That gave us a chance to admire her more closely.
If only babies could come with an owner's manual .
Thanks for the new addition to the family Wolfgang!
JM
To see a real Puchacz hatching, check this out:
http://www.youtube.
http://www.youtube.
And then, for the grown up version landing:
http://www.youtube.
Cheers,
Roger
