The forecasts of a lowering cloud base during the day put paid to the
Chief Flying Instructor's plans to convert the instructor cadre to our
new two-seat trainer, the Puchacz. So he wisely cancelled that plan on
Tuesday.
Still the Wednesday Wavers assembled to witness a
frenzy of activity as Scratch fitted a new starter motor to the Jeep. A
simple task you might think. No, it's buried deep in the back of the
engine bay. Eventually the engine would start but frustratingly not
continue to run. After much further work this overly complex vehicle
was returned to service.
The Duty Instructor
arrived a little later and decided to give flying a go. With no
trainees on site a K-8 and the new Astir CS77 were inspected and taken
to the west end of the airfield by a small team of Wavers. Others stayed
behind as there was work to be done on ensuring the the new Puchacz
could be fitted with batteries.
Mike Jardine
enjoyed the novelty of taking a check flight in a K-8. A good launch saw
him in amongst the broken clouds. He estimated the cloud base was at
1,200 feet. He authorised general flying with the caveat of watching
for the expected lowering of the cloud base during the day.
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| Weather check flight. Can I remember how to fly this thing? |
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| The new Astir channeling its inner KT Tunstall and Suzi Quatro with "Shine a light on me". |
Things
then happened quickly with John Smith taking a short flight, it started
to rain, and the gliders and the field equipment were returned to the
hangar and motor transport hangar respectively. This included the
newly-acquired dinky trailer to transport tyres around the site (Ed:
This sounds like something out of a Betterware catalogue or Sunday newspaper supplement: Essential items that you never new you needed).
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| The Wednesday Wavers are a hardy lot expecting to fly in this. |
A disappointing day?
Not so much. The Wednesday Wavers had managed to fly on two successive
Wednesdays in November. This is despite the continuing run of wet
weather that seems hell bent on making November wetter than October (Ed:
If that is possible. So where has Global Warming been in 2023? Not on
Dartmoor that's for sure).
Meanwhile Dave
Archer I had been painstakingly tracing electrical systems in the
Puchacz and confirming the polarity, switchery, and other installation
foibles, until we were confident enough to connect the newly-constructed
battery leads to the batteries and to the glider. After a few gremlins
had been eradicated we had an LX S3 electronic variometer working in
the front panel and also in the rear panel. Then the Flarm mouse and
Flarm View display were working (Ed: Note to the Fleet Manager: Find a
manual for the Flarm View to find out how to brighten the display, and
find a micro SD card to load the latest version of the Flarm firmware).
We also checked out the connections for the 8.33 kHz spacing radio from
when it comes back from repair.
In the glider
rack there was activity with Colin, ably assisted by Andy Davey and
Martin Broadway, who was conducting an annual inspection and
airworthiness review of their Libelle, JEU (Ed: Andy and Martin were
pleased when it received a clean bill of health).
After
lunch, and a repacked hangar, Dave and I could turn our attention to the
battery arrangements in the Astir CS77. We were joined by John Allan.
Meanwhile Mike Bennett worked on fettling the Astir's 1970's purple-dominant seat
covering and ensured that it's stuck down in the right places (Ed: You
could see that Mike was at home in the Astir. Apparently the
garish-patterned fabric matches his curtains at home!).
We
were joined by instructor Jamie Steel who came to check that Puchacz
trailer was ready to go back to Les Clark and the Vale of White Horse Gliding Club
on Saturday (Ed: Jamie, thanks in advance for the help). He checked
that the measuring and photographing of the trailer was complete so that
the DGS AMF trailer could be fitted out to accommodate the Puchacz (Ed:
I hear that the AMF trailer is some 50cm shorter than the Puchacz
trailer!).
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| The Puchacz trailer ready to return to the Vale of White Horse Gliding Club |
As the Wednesday Wavers dissipated
into the increasingly gloomy damp afternoon Jamie gave those remaining some useful
operating tips on both the the Puchacz and the Astir CS77. The small
team of workers assisted by the inevitable observers managed to get two
batteries, with two new battery leads installed, and all the instruments
brought to life. Intriguingly one is a solid state artificial horizon.
While we had access to the innards of the instrument panel the superfluous electronic temperature
monitor was removed which was sited too close to the cable release for
comfort/safety (Ed: The chances of filling the Astir's wings with water
ballast, hence the need for a temperature gauge to avoid freezing flight
levels, in what is now a club aircraft, operating from Dartmoor, and
being winch launched, are virtually zero).
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| Two workers (Ed: John Allan is out of shot, kneeling by the cockpit) and two observers |
With
the panel shroud and canopy back in place the Astir was slid back back into the
hangar, wings dried from the drizzle, and the hangar doors closed.
The
final four stalwarts retired to the clubhouse for a well deserved
beer, or cider, on the Fleet Manager's tab (Ed: I thought you said there
was as much chance of that happening as flying the Astir with water
ballast from Dartmoor?).
Roll on some better
weather for Saturday and a chance to fly members of our local Scout
troop (Ed: Or even fly the Puchacz or the Astir CS77. We didn't get them
to act as gate guardians you know!)
Gavin Short
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