Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 23rd February 2020

Where were you..? 

Today, a Wednesday wiseacre and a select band of Sunday Soarers were on hand waiting in the clubhouse to welcome you to the event of the week: the weak-link workshop!  A TEM sponsored occasion, the team braved inclement conditions (waders and lifejackets required at the east end between vehicle and launch-point caravan) to gather all known colours of strop and recover them to the clubhouse. 

“You Aren’t the Weakest Link (now we’ve cleaned you up) – Hello..!”

Whilst the rain beat down on the roof, under the forensic glare of the clubhouse lighting the strops were subjected to dismantling, inspection, a thorough clean, replacement of suspect components and final reassembly.  This resulted in four distorted brown weak-links being redesignated, plus two blue ones, whilst numerous bent bolts, rounded nuts and worn-out washers were consigned to the recycling bin.  A worthwhile way of spending a few hours on a Sunday morning, hopefully this will set us up for a weak-link worry free season in 2020. 

Thanks go to whoever thought up the idea of what should be a regular maintenance item and put it on the To Do List in the clubhouse.  Next stop, the drogue parachutes..!

Martin Cropper