Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 4th October 2014

The day started with heavy driving rain which cleared away by about 10am as the cold front moved away towards the north east. Unfortunately, the winds remained strong and gusty, The forecast was 16 knots gusting 31knots from the north west so it was decided to make this a non flying day.

The assembled members divided up into separate work parties with several tasks in mind. The small tractor was started, the roller attached and the day was spent with the tractor rolling the runway in the hands of a team of drivers.

Have roof, will travel
 At the club house, the front porch roof, which was ripped off the building during last winter’s storms, was repaired, refitted and a couple of very large ground anchors installed. Well done everyone.

Good job we have several tall members.
As the day wore on, the smell of cooking onions began to fill the air. This was the preparations for tonight’s BBQ to be followed  by a talk about RASP and weather forecasting.

Learning about soaring forecasts
By 7:30 we had all been fed and watered and assembled to take part in tonight’s talk. Our presenter was Rebekah Sherwin, a senior forecaster at the Met Office, a hang glider pilot and sometimes forecaster for national hang gliding competitions. She proceeded to treat us to a couple of hours of in depth information on using and interpreting RASP and how to maximise our own soaring predictions. I have never seen the membership so attentive for so long. Thank you for an enthralling, and informative evening Rebekah and please come a fly with us when the weather permits.

Rebekah in full flow
Steve 

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