Soaring aloft with a passenger

On Wednesday I flew my first passenger flight in a glider, with Jan as passenger. I’ve taken up lots of passengers in light aircraft in my 1200 hours of power flying, but none in a glider.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Jan is a seasoned small-plane passenger so I had no worries about her feeling ok. We had a smashing flight on a brilliant Sydney summer day. It was warm (26 degrees) at Camden, very clear, and with plenty of thermals about. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We soared up to 4,500 feet, the highest allowed near Camden, then set off for the airstrip at The Oaks where you can climb to 7500 feet without infringing controlled airspace above.

We didn’t quite manage that, but we got to 7000 feet and flew out to nearly the edge of the Burragorang Valley. The views over the mountains to the west and east to the city and the sea were spectacular.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Jan was enjoying the quiet ride. we came down to 4,500 again and set off east to Menangle Racecourse. After almost two hours, we decided to come down and finished off with a loop-the-loop. We landed with exactly two hours duration. Very good fun, so I must take up some more passengers.

There were other fliers at Camden. Lots of swallows were nesting under the roof of the hangar and feeding their chicks.

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Happy Birthday to me

Another year passes, now I’m 66 years old. So far it doesn’t feel too bad.

Today Jan gave me a new lens for my micro four-thirds Olympus OMD EM10. (It’s a really silly name for a camera, they should call it the Bonzo or the Rover).

The lens is a zoom 40-150mm, equivalent to an 80-300 35mm zoom. There’s a lot of numbers in photography these days. I’ve been trying it out and I’m very pleased with it. It’s very light, quick to focus, and seems to produce very sharp images.

My test subject for the new lens was (surprise) Ripley the cat, and here’s a picture. I’ve smallened it to put on the website (the original is 3.18 MB), but the original is very sharp when enlarged. The bokeh is very acceptable (excellent word, look it up!).

The camera is a lovely bit of equipment. It will take a while for me to dive below the surface level of all the features and get to the advanced stuff. I’ve scanned the manual, but it has 161 pages of detail to absorb.

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Beware attacks from the sky!

Foreigners think Australia is a dangerous place because of all the sharks, snakes and killer spiders. NO! The real danger it seems is from birds (Hitchcock was right). Here’s a sign we saw on a bike ride today.killerbird

Kids wear ice-cream tubs on their heads to protect from bird swoops. Cyclists  adorn their helmets with cable ties sticking upwards to discourage attacks.

We didn’t get attacked. We had a good bike ride along the Parramatta River and back – 17 kilometres. We’re getting into shape for our New Zealand cycle tour along the Otago rail trail. I think my legs will be OK, not sure how the bum will cope with four days on a bike. More training needed in the coming weeks.

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Oops, sorry Meazle

I have to issue an official apology to Meazle for a distressing mistake I made in my blog entry about Ant.Meazle

Meazle made a comment on the blog and this is what he said:

This is Meazle. I am miffed! I am NOT a Staffie. I am a Miniature English Bull Terrier. My Pedigree name is Tsornin Silver Lion and I won my class at Crufts 4 years on the trot plus many other shows. My sister was best in breed and Princess Anne and Brian Ferry are among the litter owners! so there!

He is, of course, a very handsome dog with impeccable manners and lovely teeth. (You don’t mess with Meazle).

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Party pictures

I’ve put some pictures on a website from Muriel’s 90th birthday. You can see the pictures by clicking on the picture below.

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Muriel’s 90th
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