Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 7th May 2016

Today was mostly sunny with the wind a little south of east. Easterly? That means wave doesn't it?

We were a small group today but were determined to fly. The first flight went well. Good launch height, an area of smooth reduced sink ( this is the wave, just not strong yet ) with a difficult but manageable approach. Second launch, the wind had strengthened, smooth wave was now absent and there were areas of heavy rotor turbulance. The approach was even more character forming.

G-DDMX waiting to fly before conditions became too boisterous.

 Launch three, which lasted 20 minutes, found some wave lift, very heavy turbulance and an approach that was best described as character forming. Meanwhile on the ground, the wind strength had risen alarmingly with very heavy gusts. We were having problems controlling the gliders on the ground, so it was an easy, but regrettable, decision to stop flying and return the gliders to the hangar.

The biggest news today was the return to the club of Matthew Wiles who has been absent for several years while completing his degree, but with 19 days to go at university he could resist gliding no longer. After one flight, ( flight 3 with Ged ), he was once again sold and minutes later he was signing his membership form. Welcome back Matthew.

Matthew Wiles happy to be a club member once more

Elsewhere,Colin started work on the Zugvogel annual inspection. We arrived back from the launch point just in time to help with this and to disassemble the aircraft ready for further work.

We tried.

Steve