by Robert Dorning, Workshop Co-ordinator

When you read this, all Club gliders will have had their Annual Inspections (Form 2s) completed. There was a blip towards the end (see below) and the Form 2 of the IS28 GVY has dragged out meaning it has been out of service much longer than anticipated. At the beginning of the "Form 2 season" it was decided to do the Blanik's Form 2 last so the IS28s could be completed well before the soaring season (at least that was the intention). The Form 2 on the Blanik has just been done by new member Eugene Blunt.

This year there have been changes in the Workshop team. Bill Anderson, who has done the Form 2 on a Club single seater for a number of years, couldn't help out this year due to illness. However, Richard Robinson, who joined the team last year, was able to fit in the Form 2 on the LS7 before his trip to Finland and Russia. As mentioned above, we have had the help of Eugene Blunt who is a very experienced glider maintainer and rebuilder. When Martin Kriening died earlier this year we lost a highly skilled machinist and fabricator who had maintained and improved the IS28s' Oleos (see below) for many years.

We had two life-extension inspections to be done this year. Then Richard Robinson found that the LS7 had only 180 hours to go (300 flown last year) before it reached 3000 hours. Then we had a third life-extension inspection which is still to be done and is reported in a separate article.

The 7000 hour inspection of the Mosquito was done early to allow it to be taken to Dadswells Bridge. During this inspection delamination of the fin skin was found, but it could still be flown before being repaired. The repair was arranged with Joe Luciani at Ballarat and Roger Harrop dropped off the Mossie to Joe between Dadswells Bridge weekends. Photos of the repair were in the last issue of Airflow.

After delays caused by work on one of the Club's tractors, the 30 year inspection of the IS28 GVY was due to be finished towards the end of October, but Glider Workshop staff became involved in the push to have the repairs to BXP (see Power Workshop Report) finished so it could be taken to Khancoban. Then there were further delays. John King had hurt his shoulder and has had to go to hospital for assessment and surgery. Graeme Greed had a death in the family and has had time off. We hope John recovers quickly and our sympathies go out to Graeme's wife Sandra whose dad passed away.

A few months ago an appeal was made via the Airflow mailing list for ideas of how the IS28s Oleos could be serviced. Unexpectedly,  a good response was received, but we have been slow in following up on these which will be done in the near future.