Dartmoor Gliding News- Saturday 1st November 2014

With the forecast for a low cloudbase and increasingly strong winds from the south, south  west you might be forgiven in expecting us to have stayed in the clubhouse with the woodburner but not a bit of it.

K13 G-DDMX ready for another flight

We had a good turn out of trainee and low hours pilots all looking to take advantage of the opportunity to fly with CFI Don Puttock and by 9:30am the K13 was at the launchpoint ready to go. The cross wind was strong and most flights ended with an approach into the stub runway from the north with pilots reporting very gusty conditions. This continued until about 2:30 by which time everyone had flown and the wind had strengthened to such a degree that it was decided to call it a day.

Our thanks today to Rick Wiles who drove the winch for us all day.

So back to the clubhouse for tea and medals? Not quite, CFI Don went into lecture mode and spent the rest of the afternoon hosting a lecture on the flight envelope, stalling and related subjects.

Don in lecture mode. 

Elsewhere today, John Bolt worked on the C of A and ARC renewal of Roger Green’s Astir II. Colin Boyd led the stripping of the covers from CLT’s wings in preparation for it’s programmed winter refurbishment. Steve Raine worked away on the rewiring of his Astir and Rick Wiles started working on the GusLaunch winch which is now in need of a bit of TLC having been online continuously for the whole flying season.

And relax - the day is finally done.

We did have a visitor today, Andrew Wilkes who was booked in to complete his One Day Course but we had to cancel this because of the weather conditions. He has rebooked and we are hoping for better weather next time.

A productive day from the most unpromising of forecasts.

Steve