November 9 2009 Tourist Information Centre
It’s only spring and we are in the middle of a real heat wave! It is “bloody hot” , not nice! We expect up to nearly 40 dgr. here in the shade! Melbourne has a forecast of 34! The weekend had nice weather again for gliding. November 7 , Inge’s birthday ,[happy birthday from all your Aussie friends, Inge!!!] John Nugent arrived early from Melbourne to catch up with me and also with Dundee. We decided to visit Beechworth as one of my to-do -things on the list. We were lucky as the Celtic Festival was on , with lot’s of River-dance-acts by young and old. Of course we visited the famous bakery, only however to the door ,as it was FULL in there!
On the way back we visited Corowa were everything is ready for another BIG season. We just missed out on Anders, as he was coming back that day from the annual inspection service on his glider in Temora. All containers however were lined up for inspection by quarantine this morning, so as I write they are unpacking and from now on we will see Corowa flights regularly topping the OLC list.It was good to see Grietje and Francesco and their children and they were pretty relaxed at the beginning of this 2009/10 .
Lot’s of flights at Tocumwal airport as both the club and Sportaviation had several flying guests. The young highschool “kids ” had their day of flying as well. It was good to see Neil and Glenda Burns. They are here for a month of gliding. While having lunch with Tony and Jo at Friday noon, we saw this “magic -solar-look-alike car” very low to the ground towing an old trailer with a glider. We had no clue who that was , but we found out that this was the car Neil was building over the last 10 years.His own design all “his own”. Great looking car!
On Sunday I was delighted to see Daffie and Ralf Keller. They brought their friends from Denmark and I remembered straight away Bjoern and his wife with her twin sister. They visited us in 1996 and this was the first time after , they were back. Ralf flew with the ladies at Eddie’s and Bjoern flew an LS 4. They stay for 4 days in Tocumwal. After getting back some great memories we all said farewell again , but then Ojars flew in. He visited a FLY -IN in Deniliquin, catching up with Don there and heard that I was in Toc, so he decided to fly over for an hour. More nice memories and then I really had to leave as I had to prepare a meal for friends. But….I had met Grant before as well as Greg . Greg has put his caravan on Eddie’s CP so most of the old Sportavia -caravan -owners are back at the airfield now, which is great!
As said the last days here are busy, maybe hectic ,so I won’t have time any more to write from here, but I will reflect on 4 weeks Tocumwal ,when I am in Cairns. Let it sink in first!!
Glider pilots are pretty happy with the weather here and the South West parts of OZ have this huge and steady HIGH with causes the heatwave. Nice flights and one nice one is the Mosquito flight from Jondaryan yesterday, that is East ok, but a great flight from 584 km. Good old Terry Bellair flew in his DG 400 a triangle adding a few kilometers in the end; 715 km. .Also good to see that Max is back in Benalla as every year. He flew up North just between Toc and Corowa for a quick first flight.
You see, it is all happening again in Australia, no doubt Africa will follow soon. Pilots will be HAPPY!!!!!Safe flying this season for ALL!!!!
See you from Cairns. Cheers Ritz