Congratulations Ian on return to service of Ka6. Nice to see some
refreshing news on this site in regards to aircraft restoration
instead of the usual Blanik/PW5/anything under 40 to1 bashing that
wastes so much space at times. I also returned our clubs Arrow to
service yesterday,probably much to the digust of some who would
rather use the wood for a BBQ and insert a new private (plastic) toy
in its hanger space. Would be much the same as sending your MG to
the wreckers because it was old and cant keep up with your
commodore. (step off soapbox)
Keep up the good work. I hope to have 2 more classic aircraft in the
air soon, a M200 and BG12 (GHJ) and i know of a pre war grunau that
will be flying soon from our site.More later
Laurie
> From: [email protected]
> Subject: Aus-soaring Digest, Vol 63, Issue 38
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:28:41 +1030
>
> Send Aus-soaring mailing list submissions to
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Another returns (Patching)
> 2. Re: Fw: Frohe Weihnacht und ein Gutes Neues Jahr 2008 (DMcD)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:43:14 +1100
> From: "Patching" <[email protected]>
> Subject: [Aus-soaring] Another returns
> To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."
> <[email protected]>
> Message-ID: <c06093fb9dc7405cbccb2b331a1f6...@patching>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi All,
>
> Today we completed the restoration of the ASK 6 E, VH-GEA, with
its post restoration flight at Bacchus Marsh. It has been 16 years
since its unfortunate landing at Muralen.
> Many Many thanks to all the people who have helped return this
beautiful glider to service. Geoff Hearn for helping me find it.
Mal Bennett for taking on the job of fixing the wing. The
Australian Gliding Museum for the covering. Pete Raphael for the
painting. Alan Patching for the weighing and to Dennis Hipperson
who now owns it, for all the new trailer fittings and a thousand other jobs.
> Without you all this just wouldn't have happened so soon.
>
> Thankyou all.
> What a nice xmas present. And yes.....it flies beautifully.
>
> Cheers
> Patch
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> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:58:36 +1100
> From: DMcD <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Fw: Frohe Weihnacht und ein Gutes Neues
> Jahr 2008
> To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."
> <[email protected]>
> Message-ID:
> <[email protected]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> >
> >
> > > The complete DG- and LS-Team is sending you our greetings.
> > > We hope all the best for you.
> >
>
> For anyone who does not understand the meaning of Father Christmas'
> passenger (or instructor) here is the bizarre explanation.
>
> I saw it in Holland last year and did not understand. A US friend sent me
> this:
>
>
>
> "Six to Eight Black Men" by David Sedaris
>
> http://people.cornell.edu/pages/bs16/Christmas/6_to_8_black_men.txt
>
> A heartwarming tale of Christmas in a foreign land where, if you've
> been naughty, Saint Nick and his friends give you an ass-whuppin'.
>
> I've never been much for guidebooks, so when trying to get my
> bearings in a strange American city, I normally start by asking the
> cabdriver or hotel clerk some silly question regarding the latest
> census figures. I say silly because I don't really care how many
> people live in Olympia, Washington, or Columbus, Ohio. They're
> nice enough places, but the numbers mean nothing to me. My second
> question might have to do with average annual rainfall, which,
> again, doesn't tell me anything about the people who have chosen
> to call this place home.
>
> What really interests me are the local gun laws. Can I carry a
> concealed weapon, and if so, under what circumstances? What's the
> waiting period for a tommy gun? Could I buy a Glock 17 if I were
> recently divorced or fired from my job? I've learned from
> experience that it's best to lead into this subject as delicately
> as possible, especially if you and the local citizen are alone and
> enclosed in a relatively small space. Bide your time, though, and
> you can walk away with some excellent stories. I've heard, for
> example, that the blind can legally hunt in both Texas and
> Michigan. They must be accompanied by a sighted companion, but
> still, it seems a bit risky. You wouldn't want a blind person
> driving a car or piloting a plane, so why hand him a rifle? What
> sense does that make? I ask about guns not because I want one of
> my own but because the answers vary so widely from state to state.
> In a country that's become so homogenous, I'm reassured by these
> last touches of regionalism.
>
> Guns aren't really an issue in Europe, so when I'm traveling
> abroad, my first question usually relates to barnyard animals.
> "What do your roosters say?" is a good icebreaker, as every country
> has its own unique interpretation. In Germany, where dogs bark "vow
> vow" and both the frog and the duck say "quack," the rooster greets
> the dawn with a hearty "kik-a-ricki." Greek roosters crow "kiri-a-
> kee," and in France they scream "coco-rico," which sounds like one
> of those horrible premixed cocktails with a pirate on the label.
> When told that an American rooster says "cock-a-doodle-doo," my
> hosts look at me with disbelief and pity.
>
> "When do you open your Christmas presents?" is another good
> conversation starter as it explains a lot about national character.
> People who traditionally open gifts on Christmas Eve seem a bit
> more pious and family oriented than those who wait until Christmas
> morning. They go to mass, open presents, eat a late meal, return
> to church the following morning, and devote the rest of the day to
> eating another big meal. Gifts are generally reserved for
> children, and the parents tend not to go overboard. It's nothing
> I'd want for myself, but I suppose it's fine for those who prefer
> food and family to things of real value.
>
> In France and Germany, gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve, while
> in Holland the children receive presents on December 5, in
> celebration of Saint Nicholas Day. It sounded sort of quaint until
> I spoke to a man named Oscar, who filled me in on a few of the
> details as we walked from my hotel to the Amsterdam train station.
>
> Unlike the jolly, obese American Santa, Saint Nicholas is painfully
> thin and dresses not unlike the pope, topping his robes with a tall
> hat resembling an embroidered tea cozy. The outfit, I was told, is
> a carryover from his former career, when he served as a bishop in
> Turkey.
>
> One doesn't want to be too much of a cultural chauvinist, but this
> seemed completely wrong to me. For starters, Santa didn't use to
> do anything. He's not retired, and, more important, he has
> nothing to do with Turkey. The climate's all wrong, and people
> wouldn't appreciate him. When asked how he got from Turkey to the
> North Pole, Oscar told me with complete conviction that Saint
> Nicholas currently resides in Spain, which again is simply not
> true. While he could probably live wherever he wanted, Santa chose
> the North Pole specifically because it is harsh and isolated. No
> one can spy on him, and he doesn't have to worry about people
> coming to the door. Anyone can come to the door in Spain, and in
> that outfit, he'd most certainly be recognized. On top of that,
> aside from a few pleasantries, Santa doesn't speak Spanish. He
> knows enough to get by, but he's not fluent, and he certainly
> doesn't eat tapas.
>
> While our Santa flies on a sled, Saint Nicholas arrives by boat
> and then transfers to a white horse. The event is televised, and
> great crowds gather at the waterfront to greet him. I'm not sure
> if there's a set date, but he generally docks in late November and
> spends a few weeks hanging out and asking people what they want.
>
> "Is it just him alone?" I asked. "Or does he come with backup?"
>
> Oscar's English was close to perfect, but he seemed thrown by a
> term normally reserved for police reinforcement.
>
> "Helpers," I said. "Does he have any elves?"
>
> Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but I couldn't help but feel
> personally insulted when Oscar denounced the very idea as grotesque
> and unrealistic. "Elves," he said. "They're just so silly."
>
> The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that
> Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as "six
> to eight black men." I asked several Dutch people to narrow it
> down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always
> "six to eight," which seems strange, seeing as they've had hundreds
> of years to get a decent count.
>
> The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves
> until the mid-fifties, when the political climate changed and it
> was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good
> friends. I think history has proven that something usually comes
> between slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by
> cookies and quiet times beside the fire but by bloodshed and
> mutual hostility. They have such violence in Holland, but rather
> than duking it out among themselves, Santa and his former slaves
> decided to take it out on the public. In the early years, if a
> child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men
> would beat him with what Oscar described as "the small branch of
> a tree."
>
> "A switch?"
>
> "Yes," he said. "That's it. They'd kick him and beat him with a
> switch. Then, if the youngster was really bad, they'd put him in
> a sack and take him back to Spain."
>
> "Saint Nicholas would kick you?"
>
> "Well, not anymore," Oscar said. "Now he just pretends to kick
> you."
>
> "And the six to eight black men?"
>
> "Them, too."
>
> He considered this to be progressive, but in a way I think it's
> almost more perverse than the original punishment. "I'm going to
> hurt you, but not really." How many times have we fallen for that
> line? The fake slap invariably makes contact, adding the elements
> of shock and betrayal to what had previously been plain, old-
> fashioned fear. What kind of Santa spends his time pretending to
> kick people before stuffing them into a canvas sack? Then, of
> course, you've got the six to eight former slaves who could
> potentially go off at any moment. This, I think, is the greatest
> difference between us and the Dutch. While a certain segment of
> our population might be perfectly happy with the arrangement, if
> you told the average white American that six to eight nameless
> black men would be sneaking into his house in the middle of the
> night, he would barricade the doors and arm himself with whatever
> he could get his hands on.
>
> "Six to eight, did you say?"
>
> In the years before central heating, Dutch children would leave
> their shoes by the fireplace, the promise being that unless they
> planned to beat you, kick you, or stuff you into a sack, Saint
> Nicholas and the six to eight black men would fill your clogs
> with presents. Aside from the threats of violence and kidnapping,
> it's not much different from hanging your stockings from the
> mantel. Now that so few people have a working fireplace, Dutch
> children are instructed to leave their shoes beside the radiator,
> furnace, or space heater. Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black
> men arrive on horses, which jump from the yard onto the roof. At
> this point, I guess, they either jump back down and use the door,
> or they stay put and vaporize through the pipes and electrical
> wires. Oscar wasn't too clear about the particulars, but, really,
> who can blame him? We have the same problem with our Santa. He's
> supposed to use the chimney, but if you don't have one, he still
> manages to come through. It's best not to think about it too hard.
>
> While eight flying reindeer are a hard pill to swallow, our
> Christmas story remains relatively simple. Santa lives with his
> wife in a remote polar village and spends one night a year
> traveling around the world. If you're bad, he leaves you coal. If
> you're good and live in America, he'll give you just about anything
> you want. We tell our children to be good and send them off to bed,
> where they lie awake, anticipating their great bounty. A Dutch
> parent has a decidedly hairier story to relate, telling his
> children, "Listen, you might want to pack a few of your things
> together before you go to bed. The former bishop from Turkey will
> be coming along with six to eight black men. They might put some
> candy in your shoes, they might stuff you in a sack and take you
> to Spain, or they might just pretend to kick you. We don't know
> for sure, but we want you to be prepared."
>
> This is the reward for living in Holland. As a child you get to
> hear this story, and as an adult you get to turn around and repeat
> it. As an added bonus, the government has thrown in legalized drugs
> and prostitution-so what's not to love about being Dutch?
>
> Oscar finished his story just as we arrived at the station. He was
> a polite and interesting guy-very good company-but when he offered
> to wait until my train arrived, I begged off, saying I had some
> calls to make. Sitting alone in the vast terminal, surrounded by
> other polite, seemingly interesting Dutch people, I couldn't help
> but feel second-rate. Yes, it was a small country, but it had six
> to eight black men and a really good bedtime story. Being a fairly
> competitive person, I felt jealous, then bitter, and was edging
> toward hostile when I remembered the blind hunter tramping off
> into the Michigan forest. He might bag a deer, or he might happily
> shoot his sighted companion in the stomach. He may find his way
> back to the car, or he may wander around for a week or two before
> stumbling through your front door. We don't know for sure, but in
> pinning that license to his chest, he inspires the sort of
> narrative that ultimately makes me proud to be an American.
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> End of Aus-soaring Digest, Vol 63, Issue 38
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