Monday, April 16, 2012

Warracknabeal flying weekend

As planned and already mentioned before we spent last weekend in Warracknabeal and it was great!


The Warracknabeal airfield has two crossing runways: a long E-W paved runway and over 700 m long N-S grass strip. All of this maintained in great condition. There are only 2 hangars and 2 club buildings but all this equipped with anything you can think of and clean as it can be.



The club is small and only operates powered planes (GA not RAA) but the hospitality exceeded all our expectations. Everything was perfectly organized and we felt like home from the moment we arrived.


We were all well fed and transported to and back from the hotel on a bus. The weather was perfect and we all got some nice flying. Saturday afternoon turned out to be surprisingly good with almost 9000 ft cloudbase and lift just everywhere.



A line formed to get a glider flight and we had to limit the duration of each flight so that everyone could get a go. I first went up with Chris and then by the end of the day managed one more flight with Ziggy.



We can't forget that we're already well into Autumn and days are getting shorter. The picture perfect clouds started to dissipate fairly early and it looked like it was all over when Ziggy and myself got a launch. We struggled a long time in close to nothing after release but the patience payed off and we managed to climb up to 6000 ft to find there was still some nice lift at higher altitudes - typical afternoon thermals. 



The flight was really enjoyable and we landed well past beer o'clock. Everything was already packed up, the boys were replacing the lost body liquids and wondered how the hell we managed to stay up. I think we are just good ;-)

The bus took us into town where we had a good evening meal, bit more liquids and went to bed.

the pub was actually already closed ...

our bus in the morning

this is what bacon and eggs for brekkie do to you

Sunday morning

getting ready for one more fun day

We are slowly getting used to the famous stalker plane following us everywhere we fly. He didn't disappoint us this time either:

"Morning Phil! Wanna go for a glider flight?"

Selwyn landing


stalker plane

Griffo after tow

rides, rides, rides

There was also some model flying ...

where there is nothing better a foamy will do

good observation spot

goofing around

Phil's got a big mouth, fast airplane with small prop ... we'll see how he does in a glider:

"Get out. Our turn now."

"hmmm ... how do I buckle up?"

I think this should do for you Phil

I discovered that it is really possible to make Phil shut up. It's actually very simple. Just put him in a glider and he miraculously stops talking. OK, maybe he doesn't stop completely but his bullshit talk becomes very limited. And surprisingly he does really well in a glider. It's just the matter of redirecting his talking energy towards flying.

We consumed another good lunch on Sunday and departed for a serious 15 minutes ferry flight back to Horsham.

looks like a desert country

my favorite motive

back home at YHSM

We quickly put the plane back in the hangar, went shopping and drove back home to find the garage door wide open with all garage lights on ... apparently we were so excited leaving the house that we've just forgotten to close it up and it was standing wide open for everyone for the whole weekend offering free of charge fancy folding bikes, tool boxes and other garage goodies! This is just another proof that we live in a great neighborhood!

No comments:

Post a Comment