In the event, the weather wasn't as bad as predicted, being moderate isolated
showers in the morning gradually drying and lifting to very cloudy with the odd
blue hole in the afternoon. So by about 3pm we could have flown, however by that
time a change of mood had unconsciously taken hold, moving us from “fly as soon
as possible” to “let's help Colin repair the K-13 in preparation for next week's
Longest Day...”
The drama started before we even got the the club, however, with
the drive belt on Roger Appleboom's powerful American (but not Harley-Davidson)
motorbike breaking a quarter of a mile short of his destination. He eventually
arrived by tow courtesy of Dave Downton (see photo).
 |
A novel way to get to work!
Roger Appleboom arrives under tow after the belt broke on his motorbike... |
In view of the poor weather
forecast the Task of the Day had already been set by Rick Wiles via email:
'Grasscutting'. “I've set up the PTO on the small Zetor but the battery is weak
(ie. doesn't work) so all you need to do is jump start it and use a screwdriver
to short across the starter motor terminals...” (also doesn't work). Eventually,
by cleaning the terminals we got the
tractor going and from then on it was full steam (ie. less than walking pace)
ahead with redressing the recent miraculous rate of growth of the grass.
 |
“Oi cam vrum the WessCountree an oi can droive a tractor!”
Except he doesn’t, and he can’t – but 5 minutes later, he was!
Pete Harvey figures out how to get the small Zetor started. |
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| View from the office looking east via the raindrops to Dartmoor. |
Whilst
this was going on (involving a team of tractor drivers) other miracles were
succeeding disasters in the hangar. Having decided to tackle a small amount of
delamination on the trailing edge of one of K-13 DMX's wings, the scales
positively cascaded from Colin Boyd's eyes as he discovered first one, then two
three and four further problems with the wing. By gathering a team around him,
however, (Pete Harvey on glue, Leith Whittington carpentry, Rich Roberts on
straps and Dave Downton dope) and establishing a real time hotline with Regional
Technical Officer John Halford, Colin was able to deal with all these defects
simultaneously, leaving just some 'closing up' work to be done between now and
the Longest Day.
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| Pete Harvey and Colin Boyd at work on the airbrake box of K-13 DMX. |
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How do you get a glider pilot to burn his ear?
Ring him up whilst he’s doing the ironing, of course!
Dave Downton shows how it’s done! |
Our final task, in consequence of Heather Horswill having spent
an inordinate amount of time on Friday clearing cow pats from the hangar
hardstanding, clubhouse and launchpoint areas, was to weave a length of cable in
and out of the hurdle fence panels, thus preventing the fence from being opened
by cows – each end of the cable being secured by a combination padlock (the
usual code).
Thus although we didn't fly, which was understandably disappointing
for some, we did get a lot of urgent, Longest Day threatening, tasks either
achieved or almost completed.
Martin Cropper
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