CLUB COMPETITIONS DAY 2

Sunday 8th September

So, day 2 of the club comps; bombing and liferaft dropping.

DXP with pilot's door removed ready to go

My first flight was in the back of C-172, DXP acting as dispatcher for Richard who was first up for liferaft dropping.  This is a team event with pilot and dispatcher needing to show a bit of co-ordination.  The dispatcher sits in the back behind the pilot with two weighted canvas bags beside him/her which simulate a deflated liferaft.  The pilot flies a low level circuit (500' agl) and on downwind tells the dispatcher to, "Prepare liferaft", the dispatcher places the first bag on his/her lap and reports, "Liferaft prepared".  On final the idea is to descend to 200-250' agl (higher and it's points deducted; lower is a disqualification for that run).  Once set up the pilot calls, "Stand-by" whereupon the bag is held out of the open door, the dispatcher hanging on (quite hard in the slipstream) until the pilot calls, "Drop", the guy/gal on the bag lets go and down it goes, announcing, "Dropped".  Then climb back to 500' and repeat the procedure.  These two drops were consistent (only a few metres apart) but well short of the target area :(

After a short break I was up in WAM for bombing (dropping a plastic coated small beanbag out of the open window) with air judge, Charlotte.  This was somewhat of a disaster, really.  I descended below 250' on my first two finals runs which is -50 points and a disqualification. At least on the third and final go I kept my height correct at 300' +/- 25' but the bomb was well off target.  To cap it all my landing back onto 25R was not one of my best.

Feeling very humbled, I ambled back to the clubrooms to find the air judge for liferaft dropping, Russell sitting around with no takers.  So, give it a go, I thought, can't be any worse than the bombing effort. So, off in DXP which I had never flown before (it is privately owned by a club member and being used today as club regular JGP, which I am well used to is in maintenance).  DXP took some getting used to - not as much power as WAM or JGP, only 20HP less but felt more with three up (Russell, self and dispatcher, Andrew plus the rafts). Our first run aborted as a go around (control tower call).  The next two? - at least I didn't DQ myself and was bang on just over 200' agl but was too far to the right (North) for both my drops and, to add insult to injury, my landing back on 25R was a real mess; round out too soon, blip of power, floated for a bit before touching down an unacceptably long way down the strip.  GRRR!  OK, the wind by now was 15 gusting to 25Kt but it was pretty much straight down the track and no excuse!  Safe, but a pretty piss-poor effort really.

So, a couple for the learning curve there (starting near the bottom for both exercises so the only way is up).  I was jolly cross about the bombing effort but, there's always next year, and I am consoling myself with a glass of Syrah while writing this.