Armidale Sailplane Expo 2009
I attended the Armidale Sailplane Expo 2009 over the Australia Day long weekend recently. To sum up the weekend:
- I flew quite nicely, and quite consistently in the Open Class Thermal Duration.
- My Pulsar 3200 also flew well in the Limited Electric Glider event. The guys discovered a problem with the motor battery during the weekend, Peter Pine swapped it with a known-good battery, and the plane climbed amazingly! My 18+ second motor runs were reduced to <13 seconds.
- My White Icon F3B didn’t want to fly - I kept having problems with the wiring harness, and now need to replace the harness entirely. She just didn’t want to leave the ground it seemed…
- I’m going to wear appropriate clothes for flying before I leave home. I left home on the Friday wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and packed my long pants and shirts in my bag. By the end of the day, my arms and legs were beetroot red, and for the rest of the weekend (and the rest of this week), I’ve been suffering from the after effects of severe sunburn. So, no shorts, and no t-shirts!
- My repairs to the yellow Icon F3J have so far held up to the rigours.
- The Super Ava flew in anger for the first time on the weekend, and I managed to speck it, and get a 10 minute flight. The conditions were just right for the glider.
Alas, no trophies this time around…