witches go flying on Saturday

club witch in the kitchen

We got the photographs for security check taken this morning and headed to the airport where we met Peter. We filled out the paperwork to join the RAA (Recreational Aviation Australia) which is necessary for me to get the sport aircraft licence and for Zig to start the training for such. After that we grabbed the big Jabiru and went up.

gas alias petrol station

I was the first one in line and had to refuel the bird first. When I called for taxi to let everybody know I was about to taxi from the gas station Peter laughed and said: "Gas station, gas station ... you've spent to much time in the US". I corrected myself and started taxing from the petrol station ;-)

job done

The Aussies also fly circuits instead of patterns. So there we were, flying circuits, with and without flaps, with and without engine power, slipping here and there and so on. All in all 4 circuits and then we headed for the practice area where I discovered that the Jabiru doesn't really like to stall. It spins straight away rather than stalling first. Fair enough though ... it still flies at 45 kts. 

An off-field landing has been a challenge ;-) You can basically keep flying straight till you hit the ground and you would be safe. Huge paddocks as far as you can see. Peter wanted me to pick one paddock and fly a regular pattern, checking it for power lines and stuff, which we did.

We came back and all I have left to get the licence is a few x-wind landings. Too bad the new RWY is not finished yet - we could have done it today then.

YHSM

And then it was Ziggy's turn ...

wonder if he will still be smiling after flying

Since Ziggy doesn't have a powered licence yet he had to start flying regular patterns. They've been doing this for an hour and the last one was already a power off approach. He must have done pretty well ...

in front of the "terminal"

well done Zig, keep it up this way

It turned out the Jabiru is up for an oil change. Phil was in the hangar playing with his toy and we decided to let him do the "serious job" on the club airplane. With Ziggy's help of course. Phil didn't wanna believe Ziggy can do anything with any kind of tools except his doctor stuff but it proved to be wrong. Well, I didn't wanna believe the fact he's actually built a boat few years back either. He seems to be a kind of multi talented guy I guess ... that's what he claims as well actually.

Phil, Zig and Max changing oil

So there they were bullshitting each other all the time. The three guys on the pic are a pretty good match. The bullshit factor for all of them lies very high. It's bad enough if you have just two of them in any configuration. All three can get too much sometimes.

almost done

Job done. As they say: " There seems to be something wrong with this plane. Why don't you take it for a flight?"

We have a club meeting this evening so the fun will continue.