Dartmoor Gliding News – Wednesday 6th November 2013

'ere we go again!  Cloud right down over the moor, almost incessant rain, and strong winds forecast. All the ingredients for another Wednesday of fun and frolicks in and around the clubhouse and hangar, which today included ongoing K7M restoration work by our engineer John Bolt, cable parachute harness adjusting and strop-making by Dave Bourchier, Land Rover Discovery washing and leaf-sweeping by Steve Rain -  and all of us chewing over the draft Articles of Association which Leith Whittington has just circulated to the membership. Well done, Leith!

Sweeping all before him, Steve Raine

But that was not all. Taking advantage of the fact that K13 DMX was still on its trailer after a land-out last Sunday, Colin Boyd (supervised by John Bolt) set about tidying up the 'armpits' of this hard-working mainstay of our training fleet; in other words the wing roots and the extractor threads of the main pins, the latter having become worn with use. They assure us the glider will be ready for rigging and flying on Saturday.

DGS aircraft manufacturing facility

 In the clubhouse, Robin Wilson and David Rippon (stalwarts of the Tavistock local community) enlisted the help of Johns Howe and Rogers to create a whole squadron of cut-out model K13s. They'll use these to decorate our club's Christmas Tree, which will be displayed alongside dozens of others from local organisations in St. Eustachius Church in the run-up to Christmas.

Quite an impressive grid for a rainy day

 It would be nice to be able to 'one-up' our Sunday gourmand colleagues by describing how, while sipping exotic teas from Fortnum and Mason, we indulged in hand-crafted doughnuts moistened by water from the Holy Spring of St Puttockiuss on the main runway, and filled with autumnal fruits picked at dawn by virgins from Squire Beaumont's orchard. But that would not be strictly true. However, mugs of steaming tea 'a la Bouchier' and a couple of packets of doughnuts, sourced from Morrision's by John Rogers, went down a treat.

During the early afternoon, just as the skies were getting even darker, Steve Lewis declared that he thought we were all getting too comfortable and proposed that the first strop hunt of autumn 2013 should take place. So off four of us went - firstly combing the runway and landing areas, and then returning via the sodden and gorse-ridden moorland on either side. It poured with rain and we got soaked to the skin; our reward being an inner glow of righteous satisfaction - and one rusty old strop found right at the end of our quest.  Two more strops were then found hiding behind the seat of a Discovery, and added to several more which Dave B. made-up or repaired, we're now in good shape strop-wise - until the next strop-loser decides to leave it to someone else to sort things out.

Wet and victorious, the strop hunters, Bob, John and the 2 Steves

On days like this, I know wives and partners think we're crazy slogging up to shack on a squidgy bit of moorland, but as we all know, it's great to meet up with friends, get stuck into something useful which we enjoy, and bask in the glow of a wood-burner. Sure beats moping in a garden shed - or going to the supermarket!

Bob Pirie