27 September at the club

From Douglas:

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