Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 14th July 2018

Approaching the airfield under a mostly blue sky with the beginnings of some cumulus to whet the appetite of the soaring pilot (cumulus of this type show thermal activity and position), it was obviously going to be a good day. A song by Louis Armstrong kept surfacing from my subconscious.

"I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world"

The airfield was a hive of activity as people streamed out of the daily briefing by Instructor Rick Wiles. The airfield and aircraft were readied in quick time. The breeze today was westerly about 5 or 6 knots. Lovely.

The midday sky looked inviting

Right from the first flight it was soarable. It was not easy to get away with very small thermal cores (bubbles?) low down requiring constant recentering but with increasing height conditions became easier. Above 2000 feet it was easier to stay up than to come down. On the first flight cloudbase was encountered at 3500 feet above the airfield but by 2pm this had risen to 4500+ feet  (5300 feet above sea level)

Looking over Tavistock towards Plymouth from the 4500 feet cloudbase.
The Tamar and Tavy estuaries shining in the haze

Did the pilots make good use of the conditions. Of course they did, with numerous soaring flights, 5 of which were in excess of 1 hour. Longest flight was by Steve Fletcher in his Open Cirrus with 2 hours 12 minutes. The club K8 did 3 flights over an hour.

Steve Fletcher approaching Roadford

We hosted a One Day Course today with candidate David Murphy. David enjoyed lots of soaring and finished his course with a flourish by flying more than half of a 1 hour 3 minute flight himself. Great stuff. We also welcomed John Smith who was returning to gliding after many years of absence. John has about 50 hours solo and had a couple of flights with Rick. Lets hope he gets bitten by the flying bug again.

David Murphy and myself getting ready for our first flight

David turning the K13 in a 5 knot thermal at 4000 feet

John Smith ready to fly with Rick

Our thanks must go especially to Scratch who drove the winch all day. The launches very nice all day mate. Heather was once again on duty in the retrieve. Thank you too.

What a wonderful world?. "Oh Yeah"

Steve