The case of the stolen glider: About 10 years ago I was flying in a Club Class Nationals at Corowa, pair flying in a DG300. One day I outlanded near Berrigan.
I called for an aerotow retrieve, but then the farmer turned up and when I asked for permission he declined. Fair enough I said, and rang back to Corowa to change the request to a trailer retrieve. I then walked to the road to await the trailer, 500m or so but over a slight hill so I couldn't see the glider. A little while later I heard a light aircraft, but couldn't see it. The engine noise faded after a while and I thought no more of it. 15 minutes later I heard a roar behind me. Imagine my surprise when I saw my glider being aerotowed out of the paddock! I tried to ring Corowa - no luck, the phone had no coverage. Then the farmer showed up, understandably unhappy that someone had disregarded him. He drove off and I started to walk towards Berrigan, and after a while the phone started working and I found out what happened. My flying partner had heard the call for an aerotow. Since he knew one of the tuggies, who had a 2-seater tug, he went and found him without telling the organisation, and headed off to get me. They found the glider, but not me, and as last light was approaching decided to retrieve the glider. My partner came out in his car to pick me up. By the time he arrived I was still a bit p'ed off, but in the end all was well and we could see the funny side. The message though is simple - in a competition, don't go on retrieves without telling the organisers! Cheers Tim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stuart & Kerri FERGUSON Sent: Thursday, 25 January 2007 15:55 To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.' Subject: [Aus-soaring] Dust Sweet and Beers Guys - we need a new name for this topic :) Keep the stories tall and true flowing. SDF -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Adam Woolley Sent: Thursday, 25 January 2007 11:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Aus-soaring] Not at all about Libelle canopy locks... 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 >>>_______________________________________________ >>>Aus-soaring mailing list >>>[email protected] >>>To check or change subscription details, visit: >>>http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Aus-soaring mailing list >>[email protected] >>To check or change subscription details, visit: >>http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring >_______________________________________________ >Aus-soaring mailing list >[email protected] >To check or change subscription details, visit: >http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _________________________________________________________________ Advertisement: Getting married? 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