Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 7th April 2019

When asked about the breakdown of a relationship some people begin by saying “Well, it's complicated...” Well if they think relationships are complicated, they should try comprehending the sky above Brentor today... With an easterly airflow attempting to deliver wave, strong sunshine creating convection but slight shifts in wind direction at one moment creating streets and then blue holes (see photo), today was much more of a mental challenge than a physical one. In light of which it was great to see that the prize for Flight of the Day was, ultimately, won by Dave Westcott, at exactly 30 minutes.

One of the cloud streets from the south-east (
note the irregularities) that were rapidly followed by blue holes.

Walk-in’ cyclists Adam, Ruth and family were given a welcome brief by Ed Borlase.

That we were able to fly at all was largely down to the accuracy of the BBC (ie. MeteoGroup) and RASP forecasts, which predicted that cloudbase would not rise to a usable height until around 1200-1300. That gave hope for us all until, right on schedule, at 1245 we we able send returning member Hugh Gascoyne up for a 'snifter' in the K-13, a dramatic “white knuckle ride” which, if nothing else, gave him some interesting hands-on-stick time. Regrettably it also provided evidence that conditions were not suitable for our One Day Course student who, sadly, was sent for an early lunch with his family (in a brace of Series 2 Land Rovers) before contacting Dave (The Voice) to reschedule.

Roger Appleboom checking the airbrakes.

K-13 approach from Ed Borlase’s HeadCam.

In fact, that 'snifter' flight compelled us to stand down for an hour or so. By about 3pm (ie. between meals) conditions had settled into the aforementioned E/SE'ly street/blue hole regime that enabled Roger Appleboom, Ed Borlase and Dave Westcott to take two launches each in the K-13. Thus despite a. a long wait for cloudbase and b. frustration for our One Day Course student at least c. we were able to achieve/maintain competence for our club members in challenging conditions.

Hugh Gascoyne at 1,300ft over the point-to-point course.

Start/Finish of the point-to-point with horses on course.

Thanks go to Scratch (for his work on the winch), and to Rich Roberts and Allan Holland for their assistance and winching but not flying (does that send a 'complicated' message..?)

Martin Cropper