G'day All,
I think I win this category hands down.. Unlucky for me as I was the
retrieve driver, picking the great Jay Rebbeck up.. It was worth it though,
as I had unlimited FREE access to a LS8 after this effort!
This is worth the read, by Jay Rebbeck..
I'm 800km into a 1000km attempt when a line of storms cuts off my path
homeover the mountains. So I deviate way off track to get to landable
terrain,and eventually touch down at Wagga Wagga airport thinking it will
"make theretrieve easy." I land at 7pm, five minutes before the domestic
flights from Sydney and Melbourne arrive. I sit in arrivals reading FHM
until the airportcloses down.
Kicked out onto the apron at 10pm, I then wait in the LS8 untilmy faithful
crew Adam arrives in my trusty Rent-A-Rocket hire car. We deriginto the
"one-size-fits-all" Australian trailer and are ready to leave at1am. At
which point the car dies.
With half an hour of engine massage, we're finally away with only 250km of
driving to go. Two hours later, and we're cruising through the town
ofAlburey at 50kph when we hear a faint high pitch noise from the
engine.We're contemplating stopping when all four wheels of the car
simultaneouslylock up and we come to a grinding halt. Smoke billows out from
the seizedgear box and the car and trailer are left snaking across the Hume
Highway.No damage. Sighs of relief.
Unfortunately, 3am on the Hume Highway is the Juggernaught rush hour.
Wespend five minutes fumbling under the hood with ten tonne trucks
thunderingpast us, before being joined by the state police who call for a
recoveryvehicle. As we wait, the officer asks me how much the glider is
worth. WhenI tell him, he helpfully suggests that I spend more money on my
car and lesson my glider.
The car and trailer are towed away at 4am to the Alburey police car
impound,leaving Adam and myself stood on the side of the road. It's Saturday
morningin nowheresville but miraculously we find a bar that's still open,
where anenormous bouncer is busy kicking out the local drunks. Having
achieved localcelebrity status with our tale of near disaster, we score a
six pack of VBand a night's accommodation.
The alarm wakes us at 7am to catch a taxi to the police impound yard.
Whenthe RAC arrive, they prove useless and suggest we contact the hire
company.On the phone to "Rent-A-Rocket" we discover that they have a sister
recoverycompany called "Supa-Salvage" (Clearly a match made in heaven...)
And so,three hours later, a 1950s Ford 250 Pick Up Truck arrives to the
rescue. We winch the hire car onto the truck, hook the LS8 trailer on the
back, jump inthe truck and hit the road.
The nightmare is over and we're on our way home.
Two kilometres down the road, and we're just pulling up at the first set
oftraffic lights when the truck goes horribly quiet. It's 1pm the day after
Ilanded out. The retrieve is in its 18th hour. We've had two hours sleep,
our hire car has broken down twice and we've narrowly avoided a motorway
pileup.
And now, the breakdown recovery vehicle has broken down.
Looking back, this was the point where Adam and myself finally saw the
funnyside. Bent double on the side of the road I laughed so hard that
tearsstreamed down my face and my ribs ached. Meanwhile our man from Supa
Salvage called for the retrieve's third recovery vehicle. The combination
wasfinally towed back later that evening.
As for Adam and me, Derek Westwoodwas our saviour, generously agreeing to
pick us up. By 4pm that afternoon wefinally made it back to Benalla.
Reflecting on the retrieve I assumed that I'd had my season's bad luck. Buta
fortnight later I landed out 15km into a 750km attempt, got retrieved onceby
the wrong trailer, second by a car that broke down in the field, andended up
needing six people to drag the assorted array of vehicles back tothe club.
Cest la vie...
Regards
Adam Woolley
From: Mitchell Preston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in
Australia."<[email protected]>
To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in
Australia."<[email protected]>
Subject: [Aus-soaring] Not at all about Libelle canopy locks...
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:52:18 +1100
BT,
I certainly knew I was alive when Macca and I once drove from Keepit one
night to a property between Narrabri and Walgett. You were enjoying dinner
with the owners after borrowing one of their paddocks to park the Nimbus
in while attempting a 750 K triangle. I recall the Nimbus came apart under
the almost adequate lights of Macca's 'Commodore du jour'; extra care had
to be taken lest the aforementioned centre panels were dropped in the
semi-sepulchral ambience of that night.
On the topic of retrieves, how about some other stories from the forum?
C'mon folks - there must be dozens of tales of 'glider fetching' featuring
buxom farm lasses and/or strapping farm lads, perilous roads, electric
fences, enraged/amorous livestock, overly hospitable property owners,
already full trailers and such. Go on, drag out your best retrieve yarn.
MP.
On 24/01/2007, at 8:44 PM, Bruce Taylor wrote:
Cripes, Mitch, I didn't realise that you were alive when I owned that
glider!! Despite the centre panels, I did enjoy flying it, as it meant
that I could keep up with all the current hot-shots at the time flying
all their "little" 15m thingys. This meant that it was possible to learn
some stuff.
Are we still talking about Libelle canopy locks...
BT
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mitchell Preston"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia." <aus-
[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 8:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Libelle Canopy Lock
Nimbus drivers - aren't they the glider pilots with extraordinary
quadriceps resulting from all that rudder action? I seem to recall that
Bruce Taylor could do squats with a fully-stocked fridge on each
shoulder while he owned GEL.
MP.
On 24/01/2007, at 8:07 PM, Patching wrote:
Nah, I think Robert did mean the G&S tune, the S&M tune is for Nimbus
drivers.
Patch
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