marta goes to ...

Horsham Week Competition Day 7 - I won the day!

2012-02-11T10:08:00.000+11:00

Now we're talking!

I finally managed not to make all the mistakes from previous days again. It resulted in the daily win. I'm very pleased with that especially after the day before when I was already considering redirection of my interests towards playing chess or designing jewelry ;-)

ready for marshalling

The day started with very early Cu's popping all over the place and everyone was concerned about over developments in the afternoon. We could already see pretty high towering Cu's and some spread-outs over the Grampians.

task area looking brilliant

I decided not to wait too long and started my task shortly after the gate was open. It payed off and I followed a great street straight to my first turn not stopping at all for almost 100 km (!!!). This gave me an average of 127 km/h by then and I was higher than I started. What a run.

Cloud base wasn't really high (about 6000-7000 ft MSL) but this caused the clouds and therefore thermals being close together and enabled me just flying the lift without stopping. Half way down the second leg my thermalling was still only 6%. There was no streeting anymore.

I figured I have to fly about 300 km in 2:30 hrs task time and that's what I did. I basically flew a nice FAI 300 km triangle and finished 3 minutes over time. Another thing I got right yesterday - wow!

much better the the previous day

I ended up with 114,5 km/h off the stick with 11% thermalling and 9 thermals over the whole task. Not too bad for an empty (300 kg take off weight) SZD- 55. It would have been much better with water.

Not everyone was so lucky with choosing the start time and clouds already started spreading. This is also why my speed is so much better than others.

I was flying fast, following the lift patterns, didn't get low and kept the optimistic attitude till the end. It just had to work :-)

providing shelter for Foka 5 in case it rains during night

Yesterday's results:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/club/daily/day6.html

and total for now:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/club/total/day6.html

Today is the last flying day and it looks like we'll try to fly. It doesn't look nearly as good as it did yesterday though ... We have an extremely short 2 hrs AAT task all around the place. The forecasts are very pessimistic and there is a chance that the day will be cancelled due to very strong winds. I really want to fly and could really need some more points.

Horsham Week Competition Day 6

2012-02-10T10:06:00.001+11:00

One more lesson learned yesterday: there is enough energy coming through even under a thick layer of mid and high clouds in here. My mind still hasn't switched from European flying. By the look of the sky yesterday I was certain that this will be a matter of coming back home and not the matter of speed.

sky to the south

sky in the task direction

It still looked good in the morning and during launching but right after the gate was open it turned into this:

here we go again

It took me a while to figure out why my performance was so poor while Tim managed to fly over 90 kph. I came to the conclusion that it really takes a while to get used to the conditions in here and realize that as long as it's not bucketing rain there will be some thermals somewhere.

I was flying very cautious, staying high, taking whatever I could find on the way and desperately following all the sun patches on the ground. They then got less and less and I exhausted the last sunny climb to the top and headed under a thick dark layer.

this doesn't look like fun

I then discovered that it was working even there. No strong thermals but nice and regular 4 knoters. I would have never said that it's gonna be that regular and reliable over such a huge shaded areas. It's disappointing that it took me that long to make this discovery but as they say better late than not at all.

XT on the grid

Today will be tricky again. There is a weather change approaching from the SW and by the look of the sat pics it might get here in the afternoon and make it even more complicated. Geoff is predicting clouds and OD's. The task is short and we should be able to work out the weather development and adjust to it. We have again a 2:30 hrs AAT (153 km - 422 km) to the north and east.

Results from yesterday:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/club/daily/day5.html

and total after 5 days:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/club/total/day5.html

There are some more competition pictures on the Wimmera Mail Times web site:

http://www.mailtimes.com.au/multimedia/35104/460173/horsham-gliding-week.aspx

Horsham Week Competition Day 5

2012-02-09T09:45:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was an extremely challenging day for me. It was very difficult to choose the right tactic for the day. I didn't have problems staying up and moving around but I just miscalculated the development of conditions. This task wasn't easy since there was no clouds.

yesterday's grid

There were some clouds in the morning but disappeared quickly as soon as we started gridding and it turned blue. There were some very nice climbs in the blue and the first leg run was reasonably fast. I turned more less as planned and headed for the second area moving across the wind. That was where my troubles started.

on the grid of day 3 (by Steve Schneider)

I never connected with any gliders and was all by myself trying to figure out what was going on. I couldn't find the nice and smooth thermals I had on the first leg anymore. It was all broken up and I had to keep myself satisfied with 4 kts. I arrived in the second area and was heading toward my chosen turn point. This is when I met few Std and Open class groups. Most of the gliders were really low. This made me think that the area was soft and the day was probably slowly going to an end.

on the first leg

I was 88 km from home and decided to turn some 7 km earlier than planned and make my way back home with the groups that I've met there. I was 8 minutes over time by then and the way back home was supposed to be against 16 kts wind. I thought there was no way I can speed up ... but ... There was streeting in the blue and we all kept hitting very good climbs one after the other which in the end put me 7 minutes under time. Yes, I did it again although I really didn't want to.

final glide

I thought I had a fairly big margin on my final glide but then another surprise came across my way. Wind was stronger at lower altitudes and all my margins started to melt away. I kept going knowing that I can land straight ahead almost everywhere and in the end made the airfield completing the task.

Tim in D1

The results are as usual here:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/

The task is out for today. We are again going for a 3 hrs AAT (170 km - 400 km). This time though we are heading SE then to the W and to the NE for the last area. There is hope for some clouds and we'll see what I can mess up today ;-)

Horsham Week Competition Day 4

2012-02-08T10:16:00.000+11:00

Well, my tactics seem to work ...

The day started up with two layers of clouds coming into the area from the south: a solid mid altitude layer and very low Cu wannabes. The morning briefing didn't give much hope for a flying day but the decision was made not to give up. Max was convinced that it will break up around 2 pm. Since he is the local weather guru we were all patiently waiting on the grid till Colin decided to send Keith up to do some sniffing.

blue holes = time to send the sniffer up

Keith is flying a PW-5 called the "fixed object in the sky" and it's well known that he can climb in almost anything. Bernie admitted he offered Keith a bag full of empty Coke cans to not find the lift. After a while we heard on the radio: 5 kts up to 3500 ft. Not really believing it could be true we had to get ready and go. I guess the bag was not big enough. My class was the first on the grid and by the time I was towed there were gaggles below release altitude. Great ... where are your 5 kts Keith? I think I didn't just say it to myself but also pressed the PTT button. 10 minutes later the sky opened up and I got a nice climb up to 5000 ft and crossed the gate shortly after opening.

I made a plan considering the strong southerly winds aloft and decided to stick to it. The first leg was booming. I was able to follow the lift patterns and stop only for the very good climbs. After 80 km my average speed was way over 120 kph. I was tempted to go deeper into the area down wind but resisted this temptation.

far from perfect but good enough

I turned as planned and continued the good run with crosswind. I managed not to get too low and was comfortable all the time working the best height band. I also tried to fly the lift doing it a bit faster than previous day. I was doing 80 kts and it worked for me. I arrived in the second area and made the turn exactly as planned being few minutes over time. I didn't notice though that the McCready setting was 0 ... I was playing with Altair to see how it modifies task based on McCready setting and just forgot to put it back up ... Bugger! Half way back home a nice lady voice from the speaker announced: "Expect early task arrival". This was when I realized the setting but it was already too late to do anything.

lesson learned: don't play with settings while on task!

I wasn't happy with that at all and finished over 3 minutes early again. There is room for improvement though and I'm not gonna make this mistake again today.

enjoying my evening beer with the boys

I mentioned the "Phil riding my folding pushbike" story the other day when we all ended up in the Emergency. A week and a half after he looks like this. Tess is a very smart dog and feels for him so she decided to use one leg less as well:

good dog

And here is the proof that my flying is moving into a better direction:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/

sunset at YHSM

I just got the task sheet for today. 3 hrs AAT (150 km - 370 km) to the NW and NE. It's windy on the ground and it looks like it's gonna be an interesting day again.

Horsham Week Competition Day 3

2012-02-06T20:57:00.000+11:00

6:30 am sky was blue, first Cu's showed around 10:00 am and at noon it looked like this:

grid on 26

Almost everyone thought we'll be practicing gridging today. Then the weather recycled one more time and served us the sky full of extremely flat Cu's at 6000 ft. I decided to experiment a bit and reduce thermalling to the absolute minimum. I ended up with a total of 9 thermals over 233 km that I've flown on task and the average glide was 24 km. My speed off the stick was 96 km/h. I should have been flying a bit faster between the thermals though. I think that the "flying the lift" worked out all right cause I ended up with only 18% thermalling. Weather should be similar tomorrow and I'll try to correct the mistakes I made today.

Here are today's results:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/club/daily/day2.html

and total after 2 days:

http://soaringspot.com/hwk2012/results/club/daily/day2.html

Horsham Week Competition day 2

2012-02-05T12:18:00.001+11:00

Day 2 of this years Horsham Week Comp is unfortunately as predicted a non flying day. We have a cold front passing through with extremely strong winds (43 kts on the ground) creating dust storms. It's a horrible experience to feel the dust between your teeth and have the whole nose blocked by it but there is nothing you can do about it.

"what you see is what you get today"

Mike - Safety Officer and tow pilot

Colin & Sel - CD & Scorer

Ziggy & Keith - polish glider lovers

Keith's T-Shirt

Horsham Week Competition day 1

2012-02-05T11:57:00.000+11:00

The Horsham Week Competition has started. We had the first flying day yesterday. Despite the approaching cold front weather turned out to be better than predicted and we all had good fun flying.

morning of day 1 on the campsite

We had the same 3 hours AAT task for all classes. The first leg against strong wind was in the blue but the Cu's developing in the first area were already visible.

D1 & XT on the grid again but with different contents

Ziggy is not flying this time (he has to work). It is so much nicer and comfortable to fly knowing there is somebody waiting on the ground and will come and get you if needed.

No. 1 crew

I reached the first area without any trouble and connected with clouds. Some of them were better than the others but in general it was all working nicely and I was able to move forward (with 20 kts tailwind) staying high. Interesting, the life cycle of Cu's was fairly short but even the ones already falling apart were still working nicely. The 120 km run down wind was a good one. I didn't want to penetrate the last area to deeply cause I was concerned about my way back home against the wind and with the frontal clouds approaching. I turned with 20 minutes over time and ... had to stop only once on the 96 km way back. There was some nice streeting, no strong sink between clouds and I definitely had my final glide with a huge safe margin 65 km out. Although I didn't make the best speed (about 100 km/h over 300 km task) I enjoyed the relaxed flight. It was also my first flight in the 55 for a long long time.

flying doctors

Horsham Coaching Week

2012-02-03T09:14:00.000+11:00

The famous Horsham Coaching Week is well in progress at our airfield. We have some 24 gliders flown by coaches and trainees every day. Weather is far from perfect but it's good enough to set a nice task every day. Besides flying there are lectures held every morning.

yesterday's morning lecture about thermal sources by Geoff Vincent

I was on tow duty yesterday flying the Jabiru. The boys got the big toys (Pawnee and CallAir) and left the girly plane for me. Jabiru is fun to fly though and I was able to clock the same tow times the boys did in their big and powerful machines. Go figure ...

trailer parking area

"forget rigging mate and meet Ziggy!"

grid on 08

After everybody was up and stayed up I drove back home to do some long overdue cleaning and met this little guy hopping along the road.

The kangaroo couldn't understand that all I wanted was a nice shot and all there was left to shoot was kangaroos butt. Well, it' better than nothing I guess.

I was asked to do some talking after dinner yesterday. I knew that the last thing people want after a long flying day and a few beers is to listen about gliding theory. I decided to show them my gliding pictures from Poland, USA and Sweden and tell some stories about that. We did it in the Natimuk Pub and had some more audience than just glider pilots. There were some people having dinner and they didn't seem to mind the pics on the big wall and me talking. It was a fun evening.

in Natimuk before dinner and presentation

Fun weekend

2012-01-29T18:29:00.000+11:00

Another fun weekend in paradise is coming to an end. It started really painful for some yesterday. Ziggy and Phil tested racing capabilities of our folding bikes and Phil decided to race on the back wheel. It went well for a few seconds and ended up really abruptly on the taxiway. It took us a while to convince Phil to visit Horsham Hospital but after all he figured himself that his knee was kind of useless for the time being and agreed to go.

"No Phil, I won't fix you. Someone in the emergency will"

"Ladies! I'm checking in!"

We have been planning on visiting Port Fairy for quite a while and decided that Sunday was the day. We got up fairly early (for us) and hit the air around 10 am.

our fresh renovated terminal

good use for MOM's towing mirrors

the Grampians

After not even an hour of flight we arrived at Port Fairy airstrip. Very narrow but long grass strip is located parallel to the shore just passed the sand dunes. Walk away from beautiful beach and 10 minutes on the bike from town. One should be aware of strong x-winds from the ocean though.

proudly presenting the wind sock with all the necessary info

Ziggy unfolding bikes

proudly presenting one almost unfolded bike

arrived on the beach

Something has to go wrong ... we left swimsuits and towels in the plane an no one felt like going back to get them. Good excuse for not getting into the cold water, which wasn't that cold at all.

sharks won't get me for lunch today

nature

what else can you wish for on Sunday?

shoes on and back on the bike!

We even managed to find the boat Ziggy built some 10 years ago and then sold it to a friend his. Very cute little boat and great detail work. I'm telling you he is the man of many talents.

looks like he wants to take her for a ride

After a great fish for lunch we headed back to Horsham to get there before the predicted strong and gusty winds arrive.

lunch with a view

We didn't quite get there before the wind but it was still manageable and our landing was just fine. This little creature was waiting in the hangar:

Australia Day

2012-01-26T11:56:00.000+11:00

Happy Australia Day everyone!

MOM's virgin tow experience

2012-01-23T11:10:00.001+11:00

We finally managed to test MOM's towing abilities yesterday.

It was a hot (+36°C) and sticky day with a slight x-wind. I had about 100 liters of fuel on board and first flew one circuit by myself taking off the grass strip. The ground roll turned out to be very long and I decided to launch the glider off the paved runway. We have chosen our club's Pegase and Max was flying it.

"Pacer MOM taking 35 for glider tow"

The initial acceleration wasn't great but sort of what I expected. The ASI stopped at around 40 kts and didn't really wanna show more than that. After a longer while we were doing 50 kts and Max was off the ground. I know that MOM doesn't like flying at low speeds but decided to force her off the ground at this speed hoping to get more acceleration in the ground effect with wheels off the runway.

hook it up Chris!

The speed went up to 60 kts and we slowly started climbing ... till we hit the first sink. Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay leveled and we were going down flying through sink.

"pick up slack!"

The balance was positive and we were slowly climbing. This is not something you can do on a daily basis though. There was plenty of lift and Max released at about 1000 ft off the ground (after 10 minutes tow). I had no problems with cylinder heads or oil getting hot which is good. All numbers were on the green arcs and stayed there.

glider tow rolling 35

We did the testing in extreme conditions and MOM didn't do well. This was the sort of weather that we're having here every summer day and therefore something has to be done to improve the performance. I think that the cruise prop that we have on might be the biggest issue. MOM has got a brand new 150 HP engine and nobody expects miracles from her but she just cannot tow in the current condition.

finally off the ground and the sticky air is well visible

We don't want to give her up that easily and will make a research on what is possible to improve the performance even if we have to sacrifice her cruise speed.

Go MOM go!

We were all very disappointed with that and needed some cheer up yesterday. Ziggy's special fish & prawns barbecue with the mates did the job.

BTW, despite the very low and slow tow at 3 pm Max still managed to fly a 310 km triangle. Well done Max!

good dinner to finish up an average day

me, myself & I

2012-01-20T21:58:00.001+11:00

No, this one is not gonna be the expression of my narcissism. Actually it's quite the opposite.

I've been thinking about and analyzing my glider flying for quite a while now and I'm slowly coming to some conclusions. Well, at least I think that I am considering the fact that I seem to have identified some of the problems causing the "not winning". Every time I go for a comp I keep saying that I'm going there to win while in fact I'm aiming much lower than that. This is one of the issues but I don't really think of it as a significant one.

We had a lot of flying in extremely changing and diverse weather conditions during the recent Nationals and this sort of opened my eyes to the problems I am encountering. We had quite a few low and weak days in the blue or under Cirrus. It was also low and slow but under overcast or rain during the Worlds in Sweden. I seem to be doing well in this kind of weather. I don't land out and keep coming back home no matter how bad it gets. As long as it is sort of soarable I'm able to stay airborne and patiently move kilometer by kilometer even if it takes hours.

My problem though shows when the weather gets good or really good. I'm not good in changing gears and constantly moving fast. I am able to go really fast for parts of the flight but unable to keep the good speed up by getting too conservative too early. Switching to survival mode occurs way too fast and too high after missing one or two good thermals. I'm turning into the pessimistic mode and slow down even if it's not really necessary. Interesting though that I'm going much faster knowing that there is someone behind me. Do I like the "tail company" or is it my narcissism showing again in form of "show off" flying? Who knows.

Meanwhile I clocked almost 1200 hours in gliders and got really inpatient in Benalla. I should be flying better and faster by now, shouldn't I? I know that I can go fast. All my records are the best proof and I've flown them having way less hours than I do now. So what's the problem? Do I feel comfortable only on my own, flying the task that I have set for myself? If I could turn back the clock would I be able to fly all these records faster in a given weather? If yes, there is no problem but I can't prove it. I can't prove it to myself and this is the biggest issue. I got pessimistic and demotivated and this has to be fixed. But how?

I started by talking to others thinking that I'm not the only one having the feeling that I have reached some sort of plateau and I'm not progressing at all or fast enough. Sure enough it turned out I'm not the only one. I talked to the best and most experienced ones and some of them "been there, done that and got a T-Shirt" (typical Aussie saying as I was told). The key is not to give up and find a way out asap. So I'm searching for the way.

I already figured that I'm good in surviving in sometimes extremely weak conditions. I also think that my thermalling is not too bad. Flying with other gliders I noticed that I'm often climbing more effectively in a thermal. Maybe I should say thank you to the gliders that I'm flying or the fact that I'm usually bit lighter than the boys. One way or the other this part seems to work fine as well.
My XC tactic based on the development of WX is the thing to work on. Flying records and competitions is very different and therefore different tactics need to be applied. Flying a speed records is all about yourself and the speed you have to achieve. It's an easy calculation including the speed to achieve and the minimum thermal strength you have to take. After start you just keep pushing till you hit the right thermal and basically continue like this for the rest of your flight. Usually half way into the task you already know if your goal is achievable or not and a decision on continuing or breaking up can be made. In a competition though one more essential factor comes into the equation - other pilots and what they are doing. Everyone has the same task and same air under their wings. The clue is to make the best out of it.

Years back I was told by someone experienced to divide my working height band in 2 pieces. First one - from cloud base to half way there from the ground, and second one - from half the cloud base to the ground. I was supposed to take only the good thermals in the first part and be happy with weaker ones in the second one. What was I doing? I was stopping for unnecessary top up's not to fall into the second band.

I mentioned the other day that I had a great talk with Tobi on the grid. He suggested dividing the working height into 3 pieces. As an example lets say we have 6000 ft cloud base:

1. 6000 ft-4000 ft - if I think I hit a very good thermal I stop and allow myself one turn. If I don't have it nailed by then I leave it and keep going.
2. 4000 ft-2000 ft - I allow myself two turns trying to center the thermal. If the average is still not satisfying, I'm leaving.
3. 2000 ft - ground - Survival mode. If I have something I stay there and work it out to go back at least one level higher.

This makes more sense to me and allows effective usage of wider height band instead of racing in only half the air available. By the way looking at Tobi's results there's gotta be something about it :-)

Another thing I definitely have to work on is my final glide. Again, I'm too conservative. This has something to do with my previous experiences. I was flying empty Jantar Std. 3 in Poland. 50 km out I had my final glide with MC=4 kts and L/D required 24. It seemed to me like there was no way I wouldn't make it back. Well ... I ended up in a potato paddock exactly 1100 meters short of the airfield. As it turned out the headwind was much stronger than I was showing on the screen and of course I've chosen a path through sink streeting. It was many, many years back and I should be smarter by now.
Another example just few weeks back during the state comps in Ararat. 52 km out and 3000 ft (!!!) above final glide. Last thermal underneath a developing Cb was booming and I took it all the way up to convert it into speed. The last 52 km with 100 kts would make a difference on a short task. The approach area was hilly and as soon as I've fallen below a certain altitude sink was the only thing on my way. This would not be a problem here in Horsham, where you can keep flying straight till you touch the ground and then call for a tow plane to get you out of the paddock 10 times the size of the airfield. It scared the s... out of me in Ararat but somehow I made the runway. Barely. As it turned out I was not the only one with this problem.
It really happens - so how do I calculate my final glide?
I think I have to do some more intensive thinking on this subject. Also, the old portable hardware and software that I'm using now don't do the job properly anymore. A very needed update on everything will come soon ;-)

The more I think about it the more I wanna go out there and do well in a comp. It's good Horsham Week is coming up in the next weeks and I'll be able to put my new tactics to a test.

Few more pics

2012-01-16T14:37:00.000+11:00

Jarek Mosiejewski sent us few pictures that he has taken during the Nationals. They were taken on the last day while waiting for the CD's decision on weather we're gonna go for task A or B. Ziggy posed with the art on his glider wearing a theme correlated bandanna.

Ziggy and his Boomerang

and with the Snake

Since there were no Cu's visible in the sky we decided to create one. It worked!

Gonski - Cu manufacturer

Our cloud didn't wanna stay up for long and Ziggy was rubbing his head thinking of the struggle in front of us.

"are we gonna make it for dinner?"

But as we say we were all in the same s... having the same task and same air under the wings.

all ready for launch

Thanks for the cool pictures Jarek!

Friday - 13th

2012-01-15T15:30:00.001+11:00

And here is how the last comp day went on after the flying struggle finished:

Sheriff falling asleep during the official celebrations and speeches

cheer up mate!

It's getting boring ... Craig won in the Club class ... again ;-)

give us food

The motto was Cowboy and Cowgirl:

but not everyone managed to get it right:

there is a longer story about the pink wings

Well at least we did:

And so did Peter and Lisa:

We are now back home. The washing machine is running without a break since early morning and car needs to be unloaded and cleaned. As usual I've got some thoughts about the competition but need a quiet moment during the coming week to write them down.

Two weeks break and the Horsham Coaching Week starts. After that I'll be flying the Horsham Week competition:

http://www.horshamweek.org.au/

Last day - the hardest one

2012-01-15T12:13:00.001+11:00

Although the task was short and seemed easy enough everything turned out to be much more complicated than anyone expected. It was obvious from the beginning that the day is gonna be blue and white from the cirrus, pretty low and weak. Nobody expected though that the winds aloft will pick up that much. There was also an abrupt change in wind direction at about 1500 ft which was well our operating altitude that day. I was showing around 27 kts headwind on my last leg.

This was one of the very few days where a sniffer had to be send up to check if it was soarable at all. Even the British pilots who used to launch well before the competition gliders decided not to fly. Sniffer reported 1 kts up to 3500 ft AGL and it was clear we had to go.

"holy cow the sniffer stays up!"

The task was a 2 hrs 30 min AAT (150-330 km). It started pretty low and slow and seemed to be getting better towards the first area. I think some got tempted and went deeper into this area. I kept in mind that going back home will be a struggle and just touched the first and second area. When I turned back home I knew it was going to be harder than expected. To make it even harder I was all by myself and just couldn't see any other gliders.

grid

I decided to stay as high as I possibly could and slowly make my way back. Thermals were rare and weak and some of them unworkable because of 27 kts wind. I've fallen down passed the wind shear height and it got more and more complicated from there on. I was picking paddocks. Firstly I concentrated on the ones suitable for aero retrieve (I didn't wanna be late for the final dinner). Choices were very limited and after a while I had to give up the idea of aero retrieve and just picked one paddock with a house just next to it. I was well below 1000 ft and all I could do was fly around my paddock, inspect it and hope for miracle. There was a sandy junk yard close by and this was my last chance. I knew it was cooking and in matter of minutes a bubble would come up. I tried to stay airborne on the downwind side of this yard which wasn't easy cause the wind kept blowing me away towards hills ... and I already way way below their tops. 300 ft of the ground I decided it was time to give up and straighten for final for my paddock. As I reached for the brakes the vario went nuts (nuts meaning 2 kts) and stayed this way for few seconds. I decided to give it the last shot and turned. It stayed positive all the way around and after 20 minutes that seemed like an eternity I was back up high ... 2500 ft and could move to my next landing option.

D1 brought me back home again

I repeated the same story one more time and finally managed to work out my final glide back to Benalla (via Winton). This was one of the hardest flights ever. Similar to my Swedish experience with the difference that I had paddocks and airfields instead of lakes and forests below me which makes the situation much more easy and relaxed.

When I was 5 km inbound Benalla Ziggy and few other gliders called 10 km on final glide. There were very many outlandings that day but we've made it just in time for the final dinner. It is proven again that D1 knows her way back home and always brings you there.

Here are last day's results:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/daily/day8.html

Wave day

2012-01-12T19:32:00.000+11:00

Despite pretty strong winds aloft we managed to get a day in today. We had to wait on the grid for some time and Tim switched to Task B which was 230 km triangle to the north (Tocumwal - Corowa). I think it was a good move cause the last clouds passed the river were exactly connecting Tocumwal and Corowa airfields. Surely there was lift in the blue as well but we just started running out of time and task had to be shorter. Everybody got back and had good fun and a nice run.

I got a special treat before gate opening and managed to contact the wave.

above cloud base

The cloud base was around 5000 ft and after reaching it I decided to move up wind and search for the wave I was hoping for. And there it was. Nice and smooth, very weak but it took me up to 7500 ft above the cloud bases and even tops. Luckily I had my camera with me this time and managed to take a few pics.

kissing clouds

Unfortunately it didn't last too long and I couldn't use the additional altitude for task start. The place was just too far away from any of my assigned start points and I used all the altitude up before I have reached them. I enjoyed the most beautiful views though and this made my day real fun. Fun was something that I was missing last days...

Tobi gave me a motivational talk this morning on the grid and cheered me up. I had some time to think about what he has told me while riding the wave. I had a nice day today. Thank you Tobi!

Today's results:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/daily/day7.html

and total after 7 days:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/total/day7.html

Day 8

2012-01-12T09:22:00.000+11:00

Winds just kept increasing during the day yesterday and in the end all classes were cancelled. Smart decision. We also had showers during the whole day. It was nice to get a day off. We had nice lunch with a glass of wine in the Art Gallery and basically spent the day doing nothing, which is really good every now and then.

changing covers to prepare for showers

hmmm...something is different here

lucky him

gliders tied down tightly

We are now waiting for today's morning briefing and it's sure we will be flying. Winds on the ground are light but we can see that the Cu's popping already are moving very quickly in the northerly direction - so winds up there are really strong again. It's gonna be a challenge for us in these little and light gliders. Interesting what the task setters have for us. Both gliders are prepared and ready for gridding ;-)

Day 7

2012-01-11T09:08:00.000+11:00

Waiting for today's briefing I found some yesterday's pics to post. This is how windy is was on the grid:

clouds look good but what about winds?

Zig checking out Brad's JS1

nice and tidy instrument setup

D1 ready to go

smile!

We were invited by Jarek and Iza for dinner at the place they are staying. Barbie was great and we met up with other pilots staying there. Lots of bullshit and fun.

men cooking

funny crowd

We just had a short look at the weather and listened to the club's morning briefing. Winds today are much stronger than yesterday and it looks like they are gonna be the ones to kill the day. They are calling 30 kts at 6000 ft. We'll see what our CD and the task setters will have to say in one hour time.

another day of hard work

2012-01-10T17:12:00.000+11:00

Although the forecasts were pretty bad we managed to fly a task today. It was an AAT and it's not new that I just don't like this type of tasks. We had to fight very strong winds aloft ... and the only gaggle that I met on my way was the one on the pic (only visible when zooming in).

But tomorrow will be another day ...

Results from yesterday:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/daily/day5.html

today:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/daily/day6.html

and total after 6 days:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/total/day6.html

Monday - here we go again

2012-01-09T09:13:00.000+11:00

After a weekend off it's time to go back to work. We had a visitor over the weekend but unfortunatelly he already took off and won't be able to help us out during the week.

helping Peter put up his tent

How do you realize that you already have a problem? The day is called off and you still don't have enough. Zig tested club's new flight simulator on Saturday.

setting up for landing at Benalla

Instead of going to the wineries we ended up in a cheese factory and then in Bright for beer testing.

which cheese board do we need?

other goodies in the cheese factory

great weather ...

Swaantje took us to Bright for ice cream and we met other crazy pilots down there.

Tobi checking colorful weather radars

is it gonna quit today?

no, they didn't drink all of this

I helped out

We are now waiting for the morning briefing but we know that we'll certainly be flying today. Gliders are already out there all ready for gridding. Since yesterday the word "gridding" has one more meaning not really related to flying but it should be kept secret for the time being ;-)

Sunday - one more day off

2012-01-08T10:55:00.000+11:00

It's raining like crazy and the day has been called off. A cold front will pass today and give us a nice day tomorrow ... maybe even with rarely seen clouds :)
We are going to the Brown Brothers Winery for lunch and possibly some wine tasting.

morning of day 5

2012-01-07T09:37:00.000+11:00

Sky looks more and more white in the morning of day 5. It looks like we will have a well deserved rest day today. Tomorrow doesn't look much better either but next week will be good again.

We have to think of an alternate program for the weekend ...

Here are some more pics from yesterday:

gaggles in the blue

Competition Director early in the morning

Peter's rego

Mak's car battery went flat yesterday and the car stayed at the tie downs. We drove down there in the evening to try to jump start it (which didn't work) and met this cute little guy:

my friend - the Fox

I pissed him off with the camera

and he took off in the sunset

dust devil or grass devil past 6 pm yesterday

sunset Zig

End of day 4

2012-01-06T19:20:00.000+11:00

Another day is over, we both managed and are having dinner at the moment. It was as predicted a blue day again. Thermal heights were rather low and not too strong. It was way better than yesterday though cause we didn't have to fight against strong winds. The task was a racing task and people tend to move along in gaggles which was sometimes annoying. We all know how a gaggle sometimes flies exactly around a narrow thermal core and there is no way to make people bank steeper. The only solution is then to leave such a gaggle ...

Ziggy and Craig contemplating before launch

"I'm jumping in now!"

Marta in the glider on the grid

We already know that one of the weekend days will be the official rest day. Weather depending it might be tomorrow. We can already see the cirrus. It started approaching while we were half way down our today's task (around 30 km inbound Tocumwal A/F). Luckily not like yesterday it didn't shut the thermals down, just weakened them a bit. We managed to get in and out the cirrus without getting in trouble and made it back to the sunny area. From there on it was a nice run back home.

I am in the task setting tomorrow morning.

Today's results:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/daily/day4.html

OK, now it's time to enjoy a glass of white with a nice dinner. Cheers!

Day 4 - another day in the blue

2012-01-06T09:35:00.000+11:00

Just a short entry while waiting for the morning briefing of day 4. The forecast is blue as it can be again. We have a pretty strong southerly breeze from early morning today and it makes me bit worried. We don't know today's task yet but birds are singing it's supposed to be a racing task, which is good I think. We shall see ...

Gliders are ready and so are we.

crowded tie downs in the morning

Weather forecasts don't look too promising for the weekend so we might have a well deserved rest day Sat or Sun.

Day 3 - blue day

2012-01-05T19:37:00.000+11:00

Today was another low and tricky blue day. Well, it wasn't quite blue - the cirrus clouds were white and very successful in shutting down the thermals. But we managed, which you can easily see on our happy faces.

happy Zig

happy me

We were just joking with Tim and Joy that D1 is a very good horse and always brings you back home. She tends to land out once a season and it has already happened to Tim some time ago. He landed in Tocumwal. We are not quite sure if an airfield counts as a real outlanding but we will see by the end of this comp. As of today I'm more than happy with D1 who knows the local thermals very well and I don't have to do much ;-)

D1 ready for her night rest

We had an 2 hrs 30 AAT task to the north and most of us flew around 200 km. Speeds were not all that great but I think everyone was relieved to be back home. European weather in Australia.

D1 in front of her home

very smart solution

it's a no brainer to store all the gliders in their spots

good night D1, see you in the morning

Tomorrow will be another blue day but hopefully better and higher than today. It's really challenging and exhausting to fly in such a conditions every day but we will survive.

We had some outlandings today as well and here are the daily scores:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/daily/day3.html

And the total after 3 days:

http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/total/day3.html

Time to finish up the after flight beer and get some rest! Good night!

Day 1 & 2

2012-01-05T09:49:00.001+11:00

First two competition days were very hot and the flying was challenging. We had perfect weather the first day and the task turned out too short for some. I know that I still have to work on speeding up on very good days. Yesterday (day 2) was the exact opposite. Southerly winds brought the see breeze in and shut everything down. It started blueing out during launching and it just got worse and worse during the day. It was good for me to have some practice from Sweden. This was a good Swedish day. I struggled long and low almost flying backwards at some point but eventually managed to complete the short task and that was the thing to do. The way back home was against 20 kts winds and 3000 ft was already comfortably high. A big thanks to Dave Shorter in his JS1 who was my companion on the way back and found the last thermal that gave us final glide. Ziggy was less fortunate and ended up landing in Yarrawonga. He got an aero retrieve back and was home shortly after I arrived.

morning routine

lucky ones who made it back yesterday

D1 brought me home again

waiting for Ziggy

We are now waiting for today's briefing. Weather looks similar to yesterday with pretty strong southerly winds. It's gonna be a challenge again.

Results after 2 days:
http://soaringspot.com/ausclub2012/results/club/total/day2.html

Practice day

2012-01-02T19:31:00.000+11:00

We had an extremely hot day today and it felt good to be up there. Although the period just prior to launch was horrible. There was just no way to escape the heat.

very hot

We had the opening ceremony and the initial briefing this morning. Nothing about washing hands though ... strange.

briefing

evening outfit

dinner guests

We had an AAT task to start with - same for all classes. Ziggy completed it and I just explored the area. It looks so much better than last year. Paddocks are dry, most of them already harvested. It is also good to have the oxygen fixed - I went up to 10000 ft just goofing around. Ziggy claims he reached 11000 up north.

The race starts tomorrow and we are slowly heading to get some rest. One thing is sure: the AC will be running all night long.

Happy New Year from Benalla!

2012-01-01T20:05:00.000+11:00

The last day of the old and first day of the new year turned out to be very busy. We arrived to Benalla yesterday afternoon, rigged the 55 and it was time for New Years party.

bit overdressed for airport party...

...but what the hell

live music

A good dinner, few glasses of wine or beer and a good laugh later we ended up in bed few minutes after midnight. Airport life can really make you tired.

New Year started with some work and maintenance on both gliders. Not easy in +38°C either. It was way over +40°C in a shaded hangar where we were working on the Discus.

Jarek hammering his tie downs

Zig checking out another 55's

Some people went flying today. The cloud base went up to 11000 ft. The rules here are that you are illegal going over 10000 ft without oxygen.

Tim informed me yesterday that the oxygen system in the Discus is in-op. The bottle mount took s... and he wasn't able to fix the bottle properly. We decided to fix the problem somehow and during that procedure also figured that the bottle started leaking. It turned out to be a rubber o-ring and luckily the club mechanic had a spare one to fit. So we managed to get rid of all the maintenance issues on time.

guys, are you following?

We also weighed both gliders today. Ziggy is spot on - 2 kg under his reference weight. I'm 17 kg under and will get another 0.5% handicap for that.

ZXT on the scales

beautiful Cu's

world is turning

tug

on tow

Ziggy setting up Altair

A very hot day forced us to seek for some cool down in the motel pool.

I wouldn't believe he will get in

How do you know we live next to the airfield?

Zig staring at landing gliders

fun day

There is someone out here who didn't believe we will really do it. Well, here it is ... now you are truly gon-ski!

It all will get serious at some point though. Tomorrow is the official practice day and we are starting racing on Tuesday. Weather is unbelievably good and we will for sure be able to fly the whole 2 weeks. Tim will be forced to choose an official rest day for us. So different from last year ... How exciting ...

31st Australian Club Class Nationals

2011-12-30T13:17:00.000+11:00

Two very serious competition pilots are ready to go again. We are heading to Benalla for the 31st Australian Club Class Nationals tomorrow morning. The actual comp starts January 3rd after two preceding official practice days. We will stay in Benalla till Jan 14th.

Everything is ready to go and all we have to do in the morning is hook up the trailer and hit the road. We are planning on doing it fairly early to beat the heat. The temps are heading towards high 30's and maybe even low 40's in the next few days. There is also a big New Years Eve party starting tomorrow evening at the field and we don't wanna be late.

It looks like it's gonna be one of the biggest competitions in Australia. The entry list (confirmed and payed entries) is just huge and consists of top-names only:

http://www.deltaone.id.au/Benalla2012/index.php?option=com_chronoconnectivity&Itemid=55

Looks like a big challenge.

Benalla - we're coming!

Christmas Celebrations

2011-12-27T20:54:00.000+11:00

We are not really into big Christmas celebrations with all the surrounding chaos so we used the days in a more useful way.

The glider and trailer are now professionally prepared for the Club Class Nationals in Benalla where we'll be heading in 3 days. We even managed to replace the trailer lights. The original wiring was a mess but after few hours of brain storming we sorted it all out and installed brand new combined LED lights.

has anyone seen a better looking workshop before?

trailer getting in & out pressure wash

Days were extremely hot and humid and I deserved a bit of in & out cool down in the evening.

"fourfeeter szwagier, at least four feet"

cheers!

Christmas Flying Video by Ladies Love Taildraggers

2011-12-21T13:02:00.000+11:00

This one is just so true. I love dragging the tail. What about you?

Christmas Flight Tests

2011-12-20T15:41:00.000+11:00

The Christmas tree is up and we are equipped to survive the festive season. This is our way of celebrating white Christmas by some +35°C as they predict for the next days.

Hopefully there will be a lot to celebrate and I'm not talking about all the Christmas chaos in front of us. Having few days off brings us closer to testing MOM's tug abilities. The hook has been installed some time ago, the paperwork is sort of completed and all there is left is towing. We decided to hook up the Pegase first, see how it goes and we'll do it over the Christmas break before heading to Benalla for the Nationals. Hopefully MOM will not disappoint us and we will all have a Merry Christmas.

summer is here

2011-12-19T14:23:00.000+11:00

There are two definite signs proving the fact that summer has finally arrived. Violent and at the same time magnificent thunderstorms and ... spiders.

The country people spent their weekend in the Big Smoke and just couldn't get enough of the beautiful Cumulonimbus clouds on their way back home.

nature spectacle

Melbourne was fun, as always, but it's good to be back home.

hotel window view

We checked in the hotel and boarded the elevator to bring us to the 18th floor. There were some people riding with us and suddenly one lady goes: "Are you Ziggy from Horsham?". We just couldn't believe it. Huge hotel, 33 floors, few hundred rooms and this lady knows Ziggy. It turned out that one of her family members is working in the Horsham hospital. Apparently there were some talks ...

I was about to take the garbage out for collection today and met her:

female Redback spider

First I decided to leave her alone and let her stay where she was. Knowing she's somewhere around the garbage bins makes me feel sort of uncomfortable though and I'll have to get rid of her company somehow. It looks like she figured what I'm up to and is hiding somewhere ... I'll wait till it gets dark!

Competition flying in Australia

2011-12-14T14:48:00.001+11:00

I just completed my second gliding competition in Australia. Before that I have flown several comps in Europe (Poland, Germany, Hungary, Sweden). There are some significant differences between these two continents. I mentioned few of them almost a year ago when I decided to summarize my experience during the Club Class Nationals in Benalla. The recent competition made me think about them again. I'm aware there is no perfect recipe for a gliding competition and there are positives and negatives everywhere. To organize a perfect comp one should take the positives from each side and combine them in a smart way. This is not meant to criticize anyone and shouldn't be taken personally. I'm just trying to think of ways of organizing the perfect gliding competition.

Safety issues are always discussed big in briefings and there is more to it than just our meanwhile famous "wash your hands!" saying. We had a 2 km finish circle based on the ARP (Airport Reference Point) in Ararat. Blue days somehow magically weld groups of gliders together and cause, more often than on Cu days, multiple gliders to finish at virtually the same moment. So was the first day in Ararat. To make my point more visible I have to add that the direction we were finishing from was perpendicular to the landing direction. After hitting an unexpected good climb on final glide most of us had spare altitude to convert it into speed. So there we were, racing at 110 kts to ... the base leg of traffic pattern (or circuit ;-). Putting the 2 km radius circle places the finish more less on the base leg. Not hard to imagine how this can look like and, in worst case, end. I know that we all are responsible for our own safety but ... Wouldn't it be easier to extend the circle by just one 1 km and give everyone time to slow down and set up for landing? I mentioned this issue on the next days briefing and after a while felt like I said something really stupid. Someone said that extending the circle by this 1 km could cause an outlanding short of the runway. I don't know about others but I always calculate my final glide to the airfield and not just finish line (or circle) because of SAFETY. And even if ... it's safer to land short than to have a midair at low altitude and high speed. Maybe my feminine perception is much more limited but I find it really challenging to find spare mental capacities racing for the finish line staring at the airspeed and the screen to show me when I cross the line and at the same time carefully observe other gliders doing exactly the same thing trying to figure out if they are just gonna pull up or maybe also make a sharp turn and, if yes, which way. Sorting out the landing sequence and space available having lets say 5 gliders doing their best to slow down on base is not easy either. Extending the circle was not an issue so I asked for making us finish more less aligned with the runway. It's easy done by wisely choosing the last turn point or just including a control point few km's short to redirect the traffic. Wasn't possible either and again I really felt like an alien with my thoughts. All there was left for me was to watch that I had my hands properly washed ;-)

I already discussed using alternate start points to prevent people from team flying. I think a 10 km long start line does the job plenty good and doesn't make a mess with the results. It just looks funny when there is a racing task of lets say 250 km and everyone gets a different distance depending on the start point choice. WinPilot doesn't support alternate start points and I decided to use a second PDA with XCSoar just for the start purpose. There is a thing that I really like about this form of starting a task. One of the 3 assigned start points for the day usually has better conditions than the others for perfect start. Very useful feature.

There is one more thing I'd like to mention. Handicaps. No, I won't be talking about the numbers but the way handicaps are being applied. The way it's done here is very confusing. The handicap is applied to the distance therefore also to the speed and in the end to the points. In the end nothing is real in the scores. You don't see the real distance somebody has flown, nor speed. The aim is to have the one with the "best" speed win. For example you have a racing task, the distance in the scores differs by 40-50 km between different gliders and it looks like a Ka-6 has flown 400 km with 120 km/h average and a guy in a Discus only managed 350 km with 70 km/h. Doesn't look real and is not real. Not mentioning how hard it is to verify if there are any errors in the results - almost impossible. The way I know it from Europe is easy. The real distance flown, the real achieved average speed and handicapped points based on the glider flown. Not always the guy with the best speed wins but the one who does get more points because it was harder for him to achieve whatever he has achieved in the given glider. Simple, clear, easy to follow and fair. Everyone seems to understand this issue but they say that's how the script they have calculates the points. It shouldn't be a problem to modify the script or I can volunteer to organize a ready one. How about that? The simplest solutions are usually the best ones.

What I truly loved about Ararat competition was the always friendly people, nice easy going atmosphere, great weather and best pilots to compete with. If there is gonna be another competition I'll be there for sure.

for insiders only

TV and newspaper again

2011-12-12T16:17:00.001+11:00

Being one of two flying girls in a comp makes it really easy to get into the news. The press is just chasing you if you want it or not. I had a little interview for the evening news and one for a newspaper. The TV news made a really nice footage promoting gliding and also the newspaper article turned out nice.

where weather is good, flying is fun and people are cool

2011-12-12T15:48:00.000+11:00

We just came back from the first competition this season. It was only a 1 week comp, we managed to fly 6 days in a row and experienced all sorts of weather. First day in the blue, then 3 days of nice Cu's and showers and strong winds the last 2 days.

We are back in Horsham with the gliders but have to go back to Ararat tonight and bring the caravan so there are only some pics today:

The Team ready to hit the road

our home for the week

all ready

neighbors

ok sheep! move to the side for landing traffic!

Swaantje didn't fly but came to visit for couple of days

Ararat atmosphere

fully concentrated in the morning

Zig is well known as the "talker". For some reason though people are still listening to him ...

"I'm not 100% happy with your results today guys..."

time to get some rest before the next challenging day

HFC

hard to decide which one of them is more full of it ;-)

Bernie brought a car full of models and provided some after flying activities:

he looks like he wants to go back

winch launch

yes, he definitely wants to go back

Mac's trailer

derigging Mac's LS8

Dave loves being on the safe side and backs up his back ups

Craig and Mac - the speedy guys

Mike, Craig, Andy and Tony - this years winners

no internet

2011-12-04T15:07:00.000+11:00

Unfortunally this is the first comp we've been to where there is no internet access. Yesterday was a practice day and we were messing with the XCSoar again. Today was supposed to be the first comp day but they called it off because of the wind. It's gusting up to 30 kts on the ground and about the same aloft. Even if it might be soarable we would end up in Mildura before reaching cloud base - as Dave Wilson said this morning. We'll see what tomorrow brings ...

first competition of the season

2011-12-02T17:08:00.000+11:00

So here we go again. Victorian State Competition in Ararat starts with a practice day tomorrow.

http://www.gliding.asn.au/index.php/component/jevents/icalrepeat.detail/2011/12/03/2/-/2012-state-championships?Itemid=21

We already drove the caravan to Ararat yesterday afternoon. Gliders together with us and tons of more or less necessary crap are following today. Thanks to Phil and Debbie we have the best accommodation on the field and the biggest and strongest ride :-).

Hopefully internet will be working over there and we'll be able to post some pics today and then write daily updates.

Article in the November issue

2011-11-29T14:02:00.001+11:00

My article about the Women's World Championships in Sweden has been published in the November issue of a Polish aviation magazine.

Unfortunately I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed with the modifications made to my text without any consultation and authorization. I know it happens all the time and I should probably get used to it or just stop writing.

Writing an article about a gliding competition I am intentionally avoiding long descriptions of the weather situation and flights. It is hard to picture for someone who was not there and makes the text not as interesting as it could be. I prefer useful information mixed up with interesting or funny stories instead of detailed flight descriptions including numbers, kts, m/s ... etc. I did so this time as well. I knew it can be hard to get just the funny parts through and therefore decided to describe two of the most interesting flights inbetween. And what happened? Somebody wanting to make my text more "academic" and sophisticated just removed the whole soul leaving plain and dry data no reader cares about. Pity that I wasn't asked or even informed about this fact. Luckily it's all in polish and the pictures are nice :-)

Of course Ziggy managed to get some more publicity in the old country posing seriously while performing coaching activities:

Bush walking on Sunday

2011-11-28T14:52:00.000+11:00

Yesterday in Halls Gap:

what are you doing here people?

"You woman stay here. I'll check if it's safe to cross."

most of the official walks were closed

lunch with The View

not sure if I like the way this huge Emu is looking at me

quick stop to have a chat with Cocky

and the sleepy friend

Gliding Coaches Meeting wakening experience

2011-11-28T13:26:00.003+11:00

We were planning on flying to Bacchus Marsh for the weekend to attend Glider Coaches Meeting but had to modify the plan due to weather. Driving down we figured we would have made it only to Ararat. Passed that clouds were lying on the ground and it was just bucketing. Walking from the car park to club building tuned out to be a complicated logistic task.

Bernard's lecture

tea break discussions

We talked about many different topics of instructing and coaching glider flying, shared our experience and tried to work out ways of improvement. It was very interesting to experience how different views of the same subject every individual has.

Ailsa and Jarek presenting safe ways of entering and leaving a thermal

A very dynamic discussion on "instructing the basics" subject developed. The Australian way of doing things differs a lot from the European one. Our group consisted of people from different origins and backgrounds. We had people who learned to fly in Germany, UK, Poland and of course the land of OZ. The basic attitude in this country is to keep things easy and simple to attract more interest in gliding. Learning by doing is the preferred way. It works in most cases but in my humble opinion aviation doesn't always tolerate shortcuts.

I was trying to make a point on the importance of some basic theoretical preparation prior to the practical part and was really amazed by the resistance I encountered. Our group of about 20 clearly split into 2 parties: the "you gotta do some studying" and the "you'll figure it out as you go" group. To clarify again, I'm not talking about spending weeks and months over books with no reference to the practice. All I want to say is that there has to be some homework done up front to ensure better understanding and therefore a quicker and safer learning process.

The student learns in his first flight to keep up the speed and not go to slow. Why? The answer: "because you'll get killed" is not an answer. He also gets to know not to go to fast. Why? Does the same silly answer apply? To recover from a spin he is told among other things to push the stick forward. Why when the nose is all the way down and the glider is approaching the ground quickly? Wasn't it the other way around: stick forward houses get bigger, stick back they get smaller? Why is it different this time? What about the weather, airspace, instruments ... I could multiply examples like that for hours but this is not the point. The perception of a student in flight is very limited and in the early stages sometimes close to or even exhausted.

Saying that making a student read a book or attend a lecture could scare him off gliding is the silliest explanation one can come up with. Maybe a person who is not able to read or listen and understand shouldn't be learning to fly in the first place? There will be more much serious challenges up there anyways. Maybe it's not the books or lectures but us, ignorant instructors, who scare people off this beautiful sport?

You can teach a monkey how to move stick back and forth to make a glider take off and landing in ideal conditions. What you can't teach it though, is to quickly find an appropriate and knowledge based solution in an unexpected situation. Giving your student a package of good presented theoretical knowledge is giving him a chance to safely enjoy the sport for years to come. I wouldn't want to be in a situation where I would think: "maybe if I had explained that to him, he would be able to get out or even stay out of that trouble".

There is this famous saying:

"The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you"

Having the knowledge and understanding can help you figure something out to save your precious butt should an emergency occur... It's no warrant of course but a chance.

There is one last thing I'd like to point out and I will probably gain few new enemies.
Having a closer look at the IGC pilot ranking and several world championships results makes me think. The top pilots are usually originating from countries where theory courses have to be absolved prior to the practical part. It might be a part of the process of reaching the top levels.

http://igcrankings.fai.org/index.php?start=0&rowstodisplay=20

In the end it's not that complicated at all :-)

We've got the boomerang!

2011-11-23T08:40:00.000+11:00

Hazel and her husband spent few more hours with Mr. XT yesterday and this is what came out:

Not only it looks absolutely stunning but I also got a lecture on different sorts of boomerangs and what they are used for. I wouldn't have any clue that there are so many different ones. Not all of them are made to come back to you but the one painted on the glider is. The amount of detail integrated in the boomerang is just amazing:

Now this is for sure a very special one of it's kind SZD-55 and it might be the beginning of a new trend ...

ZigTrendsetter

Aboriginal one of a kind paintings on the glider

2011-11-18T20:03:00.001+11:00

We just came back from the airfield. Hazel's work looks just amazing. We're thinking about asking her to paint a boomerang to symbolize Out & Return flights on the other side of the vertical stabilizer. This is Fred LaSor's idea and we think it's great. Hopefully Hazel will agree to paint a boomerang for us as well.

once again

2011-11-18T15:36:00.002+11:00

The Art of Soaring

2011-11-18T13:49:00.000+11:00

... and I really mean ART. Hazel, who is a famous aboriginal artist, started her work on the glider today. She showed Ziggy her paintings the other day and he fell in love with the black snake. So here we are - he's getting the snake. I let her work in the hangar and we'll go there in the evening to see how it turned out.

it's all yours Hazel

fully concentrated

first lines

come out who did it

2011-11-16T10:03:00.000+11:00

What a surprise. I got an email from the organizers of the "Woman of the Year" aviation contest informing me that I made it to the final 4. It is a funny surprise cause I never registered there and apparently someone just nominated me. Anyway, there is a website where anyone can give me his vote once a day till the end of the year. The results will then be announced. You can do so simply by clicking on the red link next to the pic. I don't know either what the prize is ;-)

http://lotniczeorly.lotniczapolska.pl/Kobieta-Roku,22186

Come & Try Sunday in the Club

2011-11-14T12:55:00.000+11:00

Sunday was the Come & Try day in the club. We advertised the event and made it into newspapers again:

Weather was great all previous week and had, of course, to start playing tricks on Sunday. We managed only one glider and one powered flight in the morning and had to run for shelter. Whole day was basically about dodging showers and gusty turning winds.

Many flights had to be cancelled and moved for a later date. It was all very annoying but there is nothing you can do about weather.

explaining the instruments to Dominic

we gotta be quick - next shower approaching

barbecue lunch in the hangar waiting for rain to quit

anyone fancy a sausage?

We practiced moving everything in and out of the hangar many times.

everything out ready for one more shot

Considering the really nasty weather we didn't do to bad and it looks like we'll have few new members joining the club and starting training.

And Ziggy finally managed to make everything in the glider working and up to date.

very proud Beast

what flying does to man ...

2011-11-12T22:05:00.000+11:00

lennie over Cu

all working except for the terrain and therefore AGL

I will pass on commenting the following pics that I took today after man's landing.

back to gliding

2011-11-08T10:43:00.000+11:00

After all the winter months flying powered here and there we finally got back to gliding. We managed to fix almost all the software issues in the 55 and also got the Pegase air-ready. Ziggy was flying on Saturday and Sunday and I managed to test fly the Pegase once. There are still some set up's on the CAI302 to be made since it's performing far from perfect. Other than that though it seems to be a flyable and pretty pleasant glider.

Zig landing the 55

Ziggy is not a vet but had a very unusual guest in his waiting room yesterday. A baby kangaroo that couldn't stay in the hot car while the human was being treated had to spend some time in the practice. Everybody petted the friendly creature that didn't seem to be shy at all.

how cute is that?

newspaper interview

2011-11-02T11:44:00.000+11:00

We had one more interview for the sport section of Wimmera Mail Times couple of days ago. Here's what came out:

http://www.mailtimes.com.au/news/local/sport/other/marta-najfeld-flies-to-new-heights/2341349.aspx?storypage=0

This makes me think: "hey people, wait till I fly a record out of Horsham first". It's a good motivation though.

Photo by Paul Carracher

Happy 80th Tiger Moth!

2011-11-01T11:19:00.002+11:00

After quite a few rainy days we were not really sure if we can make our long weekend trip to Leeton, NSW and Benalla. The rainbow Friday night looked promising though

our street on Friday

Saturday morning welcomed us with some very low clouds that eventually disappeared and we could put this sign on the table:

we'll be back in two days

We quickly packed the plane, fueled it up and hit the air towards Leeton.

freshly mounted new equipment

Weather got better and better with every mile we traveled and the significant tailwind was speeding us up.

beautiful Cu's in the lense

After 2 hrs and 15 mins we joined the very busy traffic circuit in Leeton International Airport and landed on one of the two huge and beautifully maintained grass runways.

don't mess up with me

The Fly-In was organized to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Tiger Moth. Although we didn't fly in one people kept coming to have a look at MOM and chat with us. They kept us busy for a while and then we decided to have a walk and look at their toys.

Tiger Moths in Leeton

more and more

The perfectly red soil over there caught my attention.

Each one of the planes was kept in the original condition.

Even the way of refueling was almost original ... sort of ;-)

The winner though was this pitot cover:

After the quick walk around and organizing the dinner tickets it was time to put up the tent before sunset. It was brand new but Ziggy (of course) didn't care much about RTFD (reading the f..... directions) and decided to proceed without it.

An hour later ...

the Man confronted with organizing the shelter for the night

I finally convinced him to read the directions that by the way already landed in the garbage bag. Fishing them out was followed by a complete success:

the sun can set

just a quick pumping up of the airbeds

and here we are:

The six-pack of beer that we brought with us was almost finished by then and the Man sat down to finish it off. He seemed very pleased with himself and his performance providing shelter for the night.

We then had a beautiful dinner in the clubhouse, watched the sun setting over the planes and headed off to get some rest. The music was still playing at 3 am ...

tent matching the Tigers

Tiger's birthday cake

Leeton facilities

We had a great sleep in the tent and a real country breakfast in the clubhouse the next morning before we headed to Benalla.

A quick pit-stop for fuel in Narrandera International and we were ready for the long 20 kts head-wind trip to YBLA.

security controlled airport in Narrandera

MOM tied down for the night in Benalla

Our friend Tim invited us to stay with him over night so we didn't get any more practice in putting up the tent. A nice dinner and the best coffee in Benalla instead.

old facilities - YBLA

no comment needed ;-)

The ad's always say either open or closed glider trailer for sale. Hmmmm, how would someone advertise this one?

"a little bit of both trailer"

All there was left Monday morning was topping up MOM with some gas and fighting the headwind back to Horsham. Our Benalla friends were very helpful and wanted to tow MOM to the gas station (around 20 meters) presenting their brand new towing equipment. The towbar though didn't really want to make friends with MOM and kept disconnecting itself every time they tried to tow it. We ended up pushing the plane which took us not more than 20 seconds.

"one more try and then we'll just push it"

We landed back in Horsham happy but pretty tired. Who said aviation was not challenging?

Horsham Aero Club Fly In

2011-10-24T10:57:00.001+11:00

We have a very busy weekend behind us. There was a lot going on at the field. It was for sure the busiest one in the area. There was also much to see and explore ...

Pitts

one of the two flying AN-2's in Australia

The Antonov was in the air without a break during the whole 2 days offering joy rides. I was wondering where all these people came from. I wouldn't think Horsham and surroundings had so many people interested in aviation.

beautiful Boeing Stearman on the new runway

Stearman wheels up over the new runway

aerobatic shows

fire bombers

Jabiru's

more Jabiru's

Cessna

This air ambulance wasn't actually on display. Too bad we figured that out a bit late when the patient arrived to be flown to Melbourne. I can imagine the crew was annoyed with us bothering them and taking pics. Sorry for that guys!

yes, you would look good in there Zig

There was also something for ground vehicle lovers:

cars

and AutoByk

Everyone was involved and the famous lawyer was selling tickets:

Dennis & Zig

I learned one more life lesson too. For everyone to remember! If you are sitting in front of the hangar, sipping your evening beer from the bottle and somebody shouts from the hangar: "Can you give me a hand moving this plane!?", don't you ever jump up to help having the bottle close to your mouth. The bottle made a very close contact with my teeth and chopped a bit of the upper no. 1. It was pretty painful but luckily it's not visible. It keeps annoying me though and has to be fixed. I can't wait to see the dentists face when I tell him I cracked it with a beer bottle ... I guess I should make up a more appropriate story.

mirror image

Saturday ended with a nice dinner with speeches and prizes in the hangar.

removing the worst mud and getting ready for dinner ;-)

We were asked to rig the glider and take part in the air show on Sunday. The first ever tow with the 100 HP Rotax 912S Eurofox out of Horsham and a high speed glider low pass were on schedule. Tony gave me a tow and I was really surprised how well the Eurofox was performing. Yesterday was a very hot (+31°C) and moist day but we were up in the air in no time and climbed out very fast. I have some experience with 100 HP Rotax tow planes on both ends of the rope but this one really positively surprised me.

Then an announcement through loud speakers was made and I came fast and low over the screaming crowd putting some of them on the ground ;-) I hope someone will share pictures cause we don't have any. I was coming in with some tailwind which made the speed look even more impressive and people were surprised how quiet this particular 55 is. No whistling whatsoever.

Everything was working perfectly with the glider but Ziggy just had to have the newest software installed. Nothing is working now and going back to the old version didn't help either ...

shortly before giving up

I know I'm repeating myself but:

"IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT"

I learned one more interesting thing during weekend. My experience with airport open days for public was bit different from what I just saw. Not only the amount of people (for such a small town) surprised me.

The overall mentality of the visitors is so different from what I've experienced in other places over the years. People over here ask before they touch or even approach anything. You can leave the glider or plane with doors or canopy wide open unattended and be sure nobody will let their kids get in there "to play" or jump on the seats with their muddy shoes waving the control stick like crazy. No "tire kickers", "control surface wavers", "wing and fuselage knockers" and "sticky finger canopy touchers" whatsoever. People just behave and make your life so much easier and days like this pure pleasure.

late afternoon, Ziggy still in the glider working on the software issue

getting ready for the first comp of the season

2011-10-17T13:06:00.000+11:00

We are going to participate in the Victoria State Competition in Ararat beginning of December. Since pair flying is allowed we decided to fly two gliders. I will be using our club's Pegase. It hasn't been flown much in the last years and needed a bit of love and care.

working on the fuselage

all surfaces are in a surprisingly good shape

my CAI 302 also found a spot in the instrument panel

After quite a few hours of mostly cleaning work all there is left to do is a new seat cushion and some polish and wax for the wings. Other than that the glider looks pretty decent. Something looking good has to be flying good as well. I'll figure that out soon.

We used the occasion and human power available to clean the hangar and get rid of all the mess accumulated in there over years.

nice and empty

Ziggy came up with the idea of utilizing this beautiful retro style piece of equipment sitting in the corner for years:

Apparently it's still working but we'll remove all the interiors, renovate the whole outside and integrate a beer fridge in there. This is going to be an original piece of art (very useful at the same time).

We also decided to rename the former workshop and create a new class room in there. It will be used for lectures and briefings during the upcoming Horsham Coaching Week and Competition.

The first event held in there will be my Official Observer workshop in November. The list is still open and if somebody is keen to get the Official Observer qualification is more than welcome to let me know.

washing the class room tables

class room

I also found this little funny creature in the hangar yesterday:

It was scared to death and behaving like a little kid:

"I will hide my head so the human can't see me"

beauty of country living

2011-10-09T12:21:00.001+11:00

How do you know you live in the country? You drive down to Subway to grab some lunch on the way to the airfield and pass this weekend sale:

what a bargain!

Another country living sign is the fact that you reach the airfield with your sandwiches in the bag after another 10 minutes. Lovely!

Phil with his stalker plane framed in

Zig adding the final touch to our renovated workshop

Weather was quite nice and some decided to go for a flight.

low tow in progress

We don't need no stinky engines! And that's why:

you spend more time fixing it than flying

Everyone wanted to have a go on the roller:

"thermals are weak and narrow today"

"I couldn't find anything"

"me neither"

Ziggy decided to show them all how to work with these weak and narrow thermals. I was just sitting in the back with my camera and didn't help a bit. Really ;-)

Zig Thermalator

Since we were the last ones in the raw we could allow ourselves to stay up longer and landed just in time for the club dinner and meeting. It was still soarable though - much better than in Sweden. Much, much better.

our new runway almost done

Extra landing after 2 go-around's caused by a glider on the runway

being followed

2011-10-03T13:22:00.002+11:00

Why is flying so much fun that you keep on finding reasons just to go to places? We'll be flying a state competition in Ararat in December and decided to fly in there on Sunday to check out the field and talk to locals.

"OK guys, form a line. There is plenty of fuel for each one of you!"

the old ones will be served first

We flew over Stawell airfield which has 2 long paved runways. The second one was built just for the flying doctor to be able to fly in any wind conditions. It looks like doctors are really important in this country ;-)

YSWL

Airport Offices

There were some serious activities going on in Ararat.

Puchacz is being used for training all over the world

Std. Libelle

With all the high-tech equipment now associated with aviation one can still find some nostalgia:

"radio check!"

The world is very small and you always catch up with people you know here and there. Gary figured it's gonna be easier to cover his old comp # with a piece of sticky tape than to remove it permanently from his car.

WTF

Gary, jump in, towplane is here!

On the way to Ararat we experienced that weird feeling that somebody was following us. Sure enough we spotted two registered stalkers from Horsham:

HFC in Ararat ("bellies in" version)

stalker's plane overtaking

There is an endless competition going on. Phil has a smaller propeller but can go faster and he just couldn't stop showing that off flying around us in circles. Ziggy, who was flying with him, admitted after we landed that they were running on yellow RPM all the time while we were only showing 2400. It's not always about the speed Phil ;-)

$100 burger

2011-09-26T10:54:00.002+10:00

"A $100 burger" - years back when I was learning to fly in the USA we used this expression to describe a fun flight just to go somewhere and have lunch on an airport looking at your plane parked just in front of the restaurant. Gas was cheaper and so were the hourly rates back then but the $100 burger will remain a $100 burger for good even if it's not always a burger.

Sunday morning welcomed us with picture blue skies, beautiful sun and light easterly winds. Just another day in paradise perfect to explore a new place. Kingston - a council owned and operated airfield, 112 miles west of Horsham and just a walk away from the Southern Ocean beaches. Also known for the giant Lobster sculpture in front of the Big Lobster restaurant.

Wind was favoring the shorter grass runway and a nice fellow pilot informed us on the radio that was the one to use. We touched down and just couldn't believe the grass condition - perfectly flat golf course surface describes it best I think.

impression in the lens

all red and white in Kingston

Dodaj napis

People used to wonder when I told them that I've never tried the traditional fish & chips before. At the same time they all agreed that you have to try it in a right place. What can be better than a restaurant just steps away from the ocean?

The Big Lobster

big indeed

The place is not a very fancy one but filled up with tourists attracted by the lobster. I'm not a fried food fan but have to admit that fish & chips were really tasty there. We finished up with a nice coffee and walked back to the airfield. The walk was not a bad idea considering how many calories we just consumed.

almost there

"all remaining passengers booked to Horsham via Robe are requested to proceed to the gate immediately"

We had a chat with nice and friendly local pilots and boarded for the flight back to Horsham. The plan was to fly a detour down the coastline via Robe back home.

over deep water ;-)

extremely serious first officer

endless beach

The water is perfectly blue and the sand white. When days get warmer and water heats up a bit we might fly in there for the whole weekend to enjoy few beach days.

We landed back in Horsham shortly past beer o'clock and Ziggy just couldn't stop talking about the hard and important job he's done flying the plane there and back, navigating etc. "Marta just did the take-offs and landings but I flew most of the time" ;-) Well done Zig.

off-strip beginners go for a ride

2011-09-19T17:07:00.000+10:00

Our friends from Melbourne just purchased a Piper Super Cub. We decided to meet somewhere half way for lunch and have a look at their new toy. Since Tim had to work it was just Lou Lou who we met in the middle of nowhere. She flew in to Guildford from Benalla and we from Horsham. Guildford had a "hippie banjo playing, having fun a hanging around in a pretty messed up condition" event going on this weekend and we figured that could be interesting to see.

heading for Guildford

Guildford has two private dirt strips located on a sort of a plateau with some 300 ft drops on each end of the runways. There are two dirt-grass-rocks runways: 600 m and 900 m long and about 15 m wide (fence to fence). The pretty even dirt part of both runways is ca. 3 meters wide. It's more less like landing on a road. So not really bush flying but still a bit more challenging than Horsham-International and perfect for some practice for off-strip beginners.

runway

Lou Lou was already there when we landed but she wasn't waiting to long - perfect timing. The place was pretty deserted and we decided to walk to town using iPhone navigation. Although this was only ca. 2 miles away the walk turned out to be more challenging than the landing. It's a pretty hilly area and you don't really know what to expect behind the next hill.

exquisite Piper fly-in

Lou Lou with her Super Cub

I can't say that we walked for hours but I can definitely say that we found a scalp (some pilot trying to make it to the civilization?), crossed some barbed wire and electric fences, invaded few private properties, found a deserted house straight from a horror movie, crossed one river (calling it a river instead of creek sounds more exciting) before we made it to a paved road that brought us to town.

the scalp

dangerous river

"is there any civilization behind that hill Zig?"

Ziggy is a real man. He offered to go across the river by himself first to check out the strength of the current ;-) and see if there is anything worth continuing the walk in that direction. Risking his life he found out that there was a tennis court on the top of the next hill. He then came back across the water and brought the two scared females to safety holding their hands and explaining where to find the less slippery stones. "Make sure your foot is firmly on the ground before making the next step and just follow my "footprints"!

We finally found ourselves on the road and started walking towards town. Not a single car stopped to give us a lift ...

out of the bush in wet shoes

Some time passed and we discovered civilization ... well ... sort of ...

We had a very average lunch but were so hungry that nobody said a thing. There was no way we could go for another walk back to the strip so there was about time to find a ride. Ziggy asked for a taxi and figured out that there were none. The lady he talked to suggested that we talk to anyone who looks more less sober and offer him $20 for a ride back up. Easier said than done. The only sober creatures were kids and dogs.

Lou Lou finally managed to catch her friend from Melbourne who was supposed to be attending this gathering. He barely woke up in his tent and only had 1 or 2 beers for brekky.

negotiating a ride to the strip

gold - official currency in Guildford :-)

So we got a ride back up and departed Guildford knowing that there will be more trips like this one in the future. We had great fun and although there was no rest this weekend it was a good one.

chasing the sun heading for Horsham Intl.

YHSM

Everybody was already back from their Sunday trips. Beer time!

flying Saturday

2011-09-19T13:56:00.001+10:00

Now we can officially announce the flying season open.

hurray!

I'm not going anywhere

I better stay where I am. It's comfy enough.

Saturday was the big day where we finally got the Grob out of the hangar and Ziggy as well as few others completed their overdue check flight.

all ready?

there we go

first one is up

you better wait where you are ... Zig will be landing shortly

and there they are

MOM was sitting so alone in the hangar that we decided to give her a flight as well. We just flew around for one hour and made sure everything was functioning and ready for the Sunday bush trip.

Mt. Arapiles

The Driver

don't try to teach me how to do it!

back home - tired but happy

beer time

weekend in the big smoke

2011-09-12T11:32:00.000+10:00

The country people decided to make a weekend trip to Melbourne to catch up with everyone and celebrate Ziggy's belayed fathers day. It was so much fun that we only managed to take some pics on the way back home.

the big smoke

huge flag on the top of the West Gate Bridge

heading back to the country

We'll be flying a state competition in Ararat in December. We drove passed the airfield so many times but there never was enough daylight to take a pic.

Ararat

you bet!

SZD-55 ad

2011-09-07T15:27:00.001+10:00

We just got this latest issue of Gliding Australia in the mail and what a surprise - my achievement in a 55 quite a few years back is being used as an advertisement.

I'm afraid the main picture of my blog on the top is not really suitable for SZD-55 ad. I've heard from couple of guys that they have been staring at the pic for half an hour and then figured: "Oh! There is a glider!" I don't think that's what a glider ad should be about ;-)

very windy weekend

2011-09-07T12:18:00.000+10:00

We had big plans for last weekend. Fly to Robe and then Kingston for lunch lobster. There is one thing though that can always come across and you can do nothing about it: the weather. Since the new runway is, for whatever reason, not finished yet we are forced to use the remaining one. Well, what can you do when the wind is blowing some 80° with 30 kts+ across the runway? Some would say: what's the big deal? It may not be but it may end up in a fence as well. The book says max 15 kts x-wind and we decided to stick to it. Although I have some significant taildragger experience this little thing is pretty demanding and I don't have it completely figured out as yet. So I tested the new camera in the hangar instead. (Ooooops I'm a poet and I didn't know it). I have this new sophisticated camera with a big lens and all I can do are simple pics in auto mode. Why do I carry this heavy thing around then? Oh, I know: it looks cool!

MOM waiting for the next shot

two classes of motorhomes

Spring is finally here

We also did some useful things on the weekend and progressed with the workshop renovations. It's not finished yet but already shocking looking at the before and up-to-date pics:

before: Zig washing off the ceiling

after: the same place on Sunday

my very essential signs

Nobody knows the new use for this room yet but all agree it's just to good to be used as a workshop again.

There will be no flying next weekend and we're going to Melbourne ... by car :-(

XC-Soar for Altair and one more Annual Dinner

2011-08-28T17:18:00.001+10:00

Another nice busy weekend is coming to an end. Ziggy came up with the idea of updating the XC-Soar on the Altair to the newest version. He permanently removed the old version from all storage devices he had and proudly replaced it with the brand new one. After uploading the software to the device though he started regretting his move. Suddenly the communication between Altair, Vario and GPS took s....

soft and hardware engineer

Uncle Google please help

The whole afternoon was destroyed by the software issue till we came up with the simplest solution ever. Find the old version on the net, download it, put it back in and learn for the future:

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

The "old gentleman ramp" in the trailer was broke and needed new rivets to fix it. Here is how many pilots it takes to put two rivets in:

fix the things that are broke

Then they decided to set the cutting length in the brand new grass mower. This is how many of them are needed to perform this highly complicated task:

"good enough for who it's for"

"My name is Ziggy Kusiak. You can call me Trevor."

In the evening we drove to Natimuk for the Horsham Flying Club Annual Dinner. The food was good, beer nice and cool, awards and life memberships presented and my presentation took much to long - I just can't stop talking about flying. They were listening though (were they just trying to be nice?) so it couldn't be to bad I assume.

Annual Dinner

life membership for Steve

and one for Mike

Marta's talk

the software is working!

"What have I told you?"

Max proudly presenting the tail dolly he made for the Grob

Spring is coming

2011-08-26T13:16:00.000+10:00

To speed up the arrival of the Spring we decided to go for the full Spring cleaning of the house. It took us a while but it's all done now and looks really good.

We also drove down to Ballarat and picked up the glider from Joe's. It's all ready to go with the new harness and fresh Form 2. Even Ballarat had the nice spring weather and with the sky full of Cu's.

sparkling clean barbecue

"like new" garage

Cu's

I really got sick of taking wine glasses out of the dishwasher in pieces. We drove down to the store yesterday and asked for some better quality glasses. There are not many things not made in China nowadays - said the lady - but I have something really good. She then proudly brought out KROSNO glasses that were made in Poland. We bought 3 boxes and the test-washing is now in progress :-)

white, red and whiskey

made in Poland

a taste of flying

2011-08-15T11:57:00.000+10:00

We were supposed to be working the most of the weekend renovating the workshop but the weather was just to good to get wasted. Looking at the grey skies and tons of rain today that was a good decision.

open the door and get it out

We managed to finish some work too and even had a general meeting on Saturday evening.

you were supposed to be pressure washing Zig ...

There you go! But hold on ... what are the two bottles doing here?

you better go and help the boys with the roof

and I will perform a close inspection on this spider

they said the roof was fixed and it was already past beer o'clock

In all the chaos during weekend I managed to grab Peter for couple of flights to give me the Janus conversion. I am now good to go and will take Ziggy for a flight next weekend - weather permitting of course. I always kept saying that we don't need no stinky engines on gliders but I was really positively surprised with Janus. This thing just lifts off in no time and climbs out with 6 kts. Amazing what this old little two stroke can do.

the sky looked pretty good considering it's still winter

ready to go

Peter claimed to have full confidence in me and then pulled the throttle back some 100 ft off the ground. Not a surprise - this is his favorite maneuver. It's not easy to scare the s... out of someone doing this in here - you can basically land everywhere. And I really mean everywhere. Very friendly airfield and the surroundings.

20 min later with a "simulated engine failure to start and retract"

Marta was up so the thermals had to be shut down and the Cu's removed from the sky. But seriously that was the beginning of the front we have overhead today. We climbed up to 2500 ft (on the engine of course) and I had to laugh out loud on Pete's comment: "you haven't been that high in a glider in Sweden, have you?". Well, sadly he was right. Most of the days we could call 2500 ft comfortable if you define comfortable being at the cloudbase. Looking down at the outlanding options though it was far from comfortable. Swedish people must be very brave flying there on a daily basis.

Horsham Flying Club Annual Dinner

2011-08-10T13:42:00.000+10:00

So here it is again - one more Annual Dinner and Marta will be talking and showing weird pictures again ;-)