28/7/04 Klix

This morning I did my washing in the GDR washing machine. And what a unique device it is too. Bloomi, the tug pilot gave me a briefing in its use.
Unfortunately last night the TE probe on Lisa Trotters LS4 got broken off when we put the fuselage away in the trailer without removing it. A stupid slip, and horroe this morning when we opened up the trailer to see the probe bent right down. Ralf helped us run around to drill out the broken bit so we could use it again. At Klix they appear to have an old chap who is a full time mechanic or something. His name is Siefried. The aerodrome has two workshops, a white one for clean work on the gliders and a black one for heavy machinery work. We couldn’t find the right size drill so Siegfried went home and got his good set. They were mounted in a thick perspex block. I was impressed, it was the front windscreen of a Mig15. Anyway, by increasing the drill sizes in steps of 0.1 mm we were able to remove the offending damaged brass tube. This still left enough original material to mount back on the fin. We then got Lisa away for the task.

Ater doing that, Ralf helped me get the LS1 out. First off I flew to the south of Klix (to stay away from the competition gliders). There was a big blue hole and I was back on the ground in what seemed no time. The LS1 is more difficult on the tow than the Pirat was. Occasionally I run out of rudder or aileron when bouncing around. The short ropes make it unnecessarily difficult too, I think. They use about 35m ropes here which is just a bit more than half what we are allowed to use in Australia. Also from my seating position and in high tow I lose sight of the Wilga every now and then due to the instrument panel. I got off at 600m and chased some big birds of prey up to cloudbase (1500m). There are a few strands of straw bent over my leading edge still from the airfield. A bit of yawing sees them whipped away. The two birds do some sort of mating flight where the top bird rolls under the lower bird and they clasp claws. They then tumble for a while until they separate. Then they do it again, losing height all the time. I follow them down. The first comp gliders are due to finish at 16:00 so I zip down to land at 15:58. Not a long flight but very unique. LS1 D-3133, 10 and 35 minutes.