After the Rains

Saturday, After the Rain

Now I am depressed again! 55mm of rain and the airstrip is under water.

Today we rescued some of the gliders, socks and shoes off, black mud squeezing between your toes, we paddled out and with careful use of wooden boards rescued some of the gliders from the pools of water.

I rescued the LS3 and dried it out, but couldn’t get my trailer out of the trailer park – too soft. I found a nice spot in an aircraft “car-port” so it at least looks dry.

We rescued John’s Discus 2 and he was able to get his trailer out so de-rigged. Six gliders left for home today as the weather forecast is not very promising for the next week. John s also heading home and will leave early Sunday morning.

No way we can get on the airfield before Monday, potential for the trough/low pressure to back up on Monday and deliver a little more rain, with another system due on Thursday. Maybe we can fly Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday, or none of these days? Driving out to Toowoomba today, the fields are absolutely soaked. The thought of a landing in one of them does not inspire me.

15m and Std class needs one more day to get a competition, the other classes need two days. There is talk about a short Run task around a few local airfields – doesn’t sound too stimulating.

Mandy sent me a note today to describe  the 6000 ft cloudbase at Gawler. Tim Wilson received a photo of 8000 ft at Benalla. Mark Rowe sent info on the 6 knots to 7000 ft at Narromine. South just sounds good.

We will consider our options tomorrow when we get more weather info.

We visited Bob and Jan ward in Toowoomba today and he showed me the progress with his Pik27 towplane. Looks quite a good piece of gear. Tonight we had dinner with the Lake Keepit guys and with Beryl Hartley. A real good night – still plenty of fun around.

Last night we visited the Trotters and Miles Gore-Brown - they have rented a lovely apartment. A great group of people, another good night.