GGC Members:
For the most part this
Saturday, the thermals, where they existed were weak, except perhaps at the
closing of the day. Nevertheless it was a good day of gliding at the GGC, with
some 18 glider flights.
Nine training flights in the
Super Blanik (IFX); five in the Puchacz; two in the L-33, 'Solo'; and one each
in the 'Bluebird (ASK-13), and one private owner flight by Ulo Okapuu in his
glider.
The high point was that
after a check flight with Claude Poulin, I sent him solo, and this was followed
by two more textbook solo flights. CONGRATULATIONS
CLAUDE.
Robert Pelley had three
training flights with Tom Hastie and myself and is progressing well. John
Schmidt with his new found freedom had two solo flights, and another solo
student, Norman Wong had two good, prolonged flights in the L-33, 'Solo'
glider (0:42 and 1:41), and had to literally be pulled down out of the sky on
the last flight so that we could go home. Norman was lucky enough to take
advantage of the late afternoon developing thermals, that had eluded most of us
earlier in the day.
Roberto Figueroa also stayed up
for 1:41 in the Puchacz, and Ulo Okapuu, the only private owner pilot of the day
had a couple of hours or more in his glider. The McCollum family (Beth and
James), had another flight together in the 'Bluebird'
(ASK-13).
I almost forgot to mention,
that I started out the day with a wonderful aerobatic flight in the Puchacz with
Wally Wilson in which we shed all our cares and woes in exploring the third
dimension of energy management, and this, then put me into a calmer mood for
taking my wife aloft in a gentle, silent flight to explore the Ottawa river and
the beautiful Autumn colours below, before my instructional duty in the
afternoon. Unfortunately, unlike yesterday, there were no red-tailed hawks to
formate with, but Martin kindly obliged as a substitute by flying alongside the
Puchacz in the Pawnee.
MANY THANKS to Derek Casselman
for bringing the replacement Pawnee brake parts from Cornwall and THANKS to
Martin for restoring the Pawnee to airworthy condition, ready for the Lake
Placid, wave camp. Also, Dan Daly and Martin worked tirelessly on the compute in
the clubhouse on the Air Traffic Control and Homeland Security requirements for the Lake Placid
visit.
Regards,
Douglas
