On the weekend 12/13 July 7½ members set out to train for winch ratings at Gramplans Soaring Club Arrarat with the OWL and GVE. Two more members were to join us on Sunday.

A set departure at 7 am from Bacchus saw myself and Mark Simpson on the road with trailers and arriving at Ararat at 9:10, to be greeted by Norm Smith who had just informed us about the day's first problem, a locked airfield. Well a little fence rearrangemerit and we were in and started to rig GVE, to be joined by the rest of the crew of Martin and the ½; Jessica Power, Wayne Mackley, John Binney, Hans Prem, Spiro Mallia and Heinrich Nowak who then rigged the OWL.

By 10:15 we were ready to roll but where were the Gramplans boys? A call to Gary Stevenson had a quick response and the Grampians crew arrived and set up the winch and we were in the air by 12:15 - winch training had begun.

Wayne Mackley renewed his acquaintance with the winch and then trained Mark Simpson and Hans Prem to full winch driver status by the end of the day.

Martin Power had the OWL busy on winch training with 14 launches by the end of the day. The day was almost and clear with a great view of the Grampians till 12:30pm when the cu started popping and and within 30 minutes of this occurring the rest of the Grampians crew materialized, as a row of gliders being towed to the launch point. We were certainly envious of them 5 minutes from the airfield and 30 min from being in the air. They obviously wait to see if things are working then bolt for the field and are airborne 30 minutes later - it was certainly a hard thing to do: launch by winch then speed back to land, with thermalling banned, so as to get the maximum launches and training for all -- as the rest thermalled off into a good sky.

We stayed at the local caravan park and Sunday was a 7am wake up by Martin and all at the airfield by 8:15 to be met by Doug Rogers and Peter Hughes who had come for the Sunday.

Gramplans members have given us our own key so the first flight was in the air at 09:35am; all operated by the Geelong crew with the first Gramplans member strolling up at 11am.

This was a very puzzled student who wandered around looking for some familiar face he knew, till at last he asked what was going on and was filled in. He then bolted off to rustle up the Grampans instructor and their trusty K7 so as to join in the fray. We got the impression that nothing much happens till around 11:30am on most days then when the cu start to appear its all go.

Martin and Wayne shared the instructing duties and 28 winch launches and 3 a/tows later the day came to a close. We had achieved 2 revalidations of winch ratings, 2 new solo ratings and another 2 that only needed 2-3 launches more for solo rating, 1 renewal of winch driving and 2 new members converted to winch driver status. We all learned winch launch signals and wire retrieval, so that now we have the basis of a winch team at Geelong. A weekend achievement of 42 launches plus 3 a/tows certainly kept us busy all the time. Hans Prem got the height record in the

Pirat GXL of 2400' agl and the OWL was regularly doing 1700'- 1800' on training flights in spite of signal training antics on the way up.

Those that have been out to the Marsh in the last 6 weeks will have seen the Geelong winch has had a few trial runs at GREYSTONES strip but unfortunately its short length 1250m and an under powered motor have resulted in the return of winching for Geelong at Bacchus Marsh being put on hold till we can get a longer strip. When this happens we can repower the winch and return to winching as an alternative on some weekends, so that every one can have a chance at being winch current as an alternative to a/tow.

Some more expeditions are planned to winch sites. If you are interested keep your eyes on the notice board for details. It is a lot of fun when it is done properly.