Photo John McCaw
JOEY GLIDE
David Tillman accompanied Alex and Nick on their Joey Glide experience. He was team manager, crew, driver and one quarter of Team NZ. The 4th team member was Dave’s wife, camp Mum Lynette. This is Dave’s story of the competition. Our adventure started well. Adam, who had arranged for Alex to fly his glider and for all of us to use his car, was away, but his flatmate was expecting us and we were on the road from Brisbane by about 10 am, with glider in tow. It was a nice day but as we went inland it got hotter and hotter. We later found out it was 42° C. Thank god for air-conditioning of sorts – more about that later. The first thing I noticed was that the car didn’t have cruise control, but if I kept my foot hard to the boards on a flat road we’d eventually get to 100 km, which was the next best thing. We often think of Australia as flat, but in reality they have hills and plenty of them. Some are actually quite steep, which is a problem when the car only has enough power to do 100 km on a flat road. When it hit a hill it slowed down, considerably! You can imagine what happens to the temperature gauge when it’s 42° outside and you’re in first or second, grinding up a hill at 10 or 20 km, tapped out. Quick thinking Nick told us to put the heater on full, which meant we needed to wind the windows down, but this didn’t help because it was just as hot outside. Our only respite from the heat was when we were going down hill. It was a long day, but we finally made it to Lake Keepit at 9.30 pm. We found our rooms easily enough and quickly had the aircon going flat out. Going a week early proved to be a great idea, as we ironed out all the bugs in the gliders and the trailers. We had a worrying time with Nick’s LS7, when we rigged it after a land-out. The pitot
34
soaringissue32.indd 34
tube had all but broken off in the trailer. The locals were great and repaired it in a couple of hours, however when Nick flew, he was getting wild readings from the vario. Time to bring in the big guns – namely Mike Maddocks, who tested all the lines, by-passed this, plugged that up and voilà, the instruments were working again. Thanks Mike. By the way, if you need to plug an instrument tube, try using a golf tee, they are designed perfectly for the job. During the first week we cooked our own meals, which wasn’t too hard. Nick & Alex were great with helping out. However at the end of each day they were pretty tired and it made a real difference during the contest when we could buy an evening meal for only $10. One of the hardest things for me was getting the boys out of bed in the morning, however I discovered the secret to this when Lynette arrived – food! She would have a cooked breakfast ready for them at 8.00am every morning and they would drag themselves over to partake. Even better, lunch was made for them as well. Then, about an hour before take-off, more food was supplied. I’m sure the boys will agree that for the next trip it’s essential we have a chief cook and bottle washer. Also, having Ivan and Jan Evans on site helping out made a big difference. Ivan, of course, always had his pearls of wisdom, and I’m reminded of the Speight’s Ad where the old fellow says “You can call me old, son, but you can’t call me stupid.” All in all, it was a great adventure. The boys flew really well against some excellent pilots. The Aussies were good value. They really looked after us and included the Kiwis in all activities, including the friendly banter. A special thanks to Ian Downs, the Lake Keepit manager, who couldn’t do enough for us. Lessons learnt: take lots of food, go a week early, get air conditioned accommodation, make sure your car can hack the heat, take a Mum to fuss, and take a bit more food just to be sure. In case you’re wondering, the trip home was no less exciting. It again got to 42°, and to cap it off, we lost our exhaust pipe a couple of hours into the drive; but that’s a story for another day.
February 2013
11/02/13 9:18 PM
