Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 10th July 2016

“Better to have tried and lost, than never to have tried at all...” was definitely today's motto for, under the leadership of Gordon Dennis, whilst fainter hearted fliers would have left the gliders in the hangar, we made the best of typical UK summertime conditions until the crosswind forced us to declare.

The K-13s wait to be launched under an interesting sky.

With a good turnout and three visitors to fly (most under our Two Flight Voucher Scheme), the kit was out checked and ready to go early, which was just as well as either low cloud, rain showers or increasingly strong winds threatened to make the day unflyable.

In the event it was the direction of the wind, not its strength, that made us put discretion before valour for, despite the gliders laying off and having moved the winch to the SW corner of the field, the winchman was unable to recover the cable with sufficient margin for safety.

That was not before we managed to fly our first visitor of the day, however, Dennis Neville, from Plympton, formerly a fireman with the GWR and LMS, who flew with Roger Appleboom, whilst trainee Dave 'The Voice' Downton flew with Gordon.

Dennis Neville, from Plympton, flew with Roger Appleboom on our 2 Flight Voucher Scheme.

Having packed the gliders away we all went to look at Dave's new K-6e about which, in the interests of crime prevention, we have not published photos (it is orange...and beautiful!)

Thanks go to Barry Green for winching in challenging conditions, to Heather Horswill for retrieving, to Steve Fletcher for running the launchpoint and new member Philip Selwood for bearing with our warped sense of humour on a day when flying for ab initios was probably, as those with a management degree would say, sub-optimal...

Martin Cropper