Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 2nd September 2020

 After the recent good weather, a forecast of a moderate cross wind and the possibility of rain approaching after lunch, it was hardly surprising that the pundits chose to score brownie points at home ready for better weather at the weekend.

Initially with not enough bodies to fly, I took the opportunity to do some ground school work with John O’Connell to back up some of the work done by Mike Sloggett yesterday. After a talk on the launch profile and circuit planning it was hoped John would be able to put this into practice. Enough people had arrived to be able to fly, so the airfield was readied and the K13 taken to the launch point. Unfortunately a moderate cross wind and curl over from the trees on the south side of the airfield prevented John from gaining much benefit.

John on approach

Next into the front seat was Colin to progress back towards solo. A circuit and two cable breaks, all coped with well with the addition of the cross wind, I thought he was good to have a solo flight. Colin did not take me up on this offer after expressing an air of caution, saying he wanted to have his first solo flights in calmer conditions. A good lesson to us all that we should not be afraid to say no if you are not happy to fly in certain conditions.

Colin ready to fly
Colin doing a successful cross wind landing

After a break for lunch, during which Malcolm studied the flight manual for the SF27. We decided that the conditions were not suitable for the SF27 to fly. Malcom, Martin and Gavin all said they wanted to fly and were willing to fly the K13 solo. Gavin went first and had an extended circuit of 8 minutes. His second was cut short due to approaching rain from the west. We decided to call it a day and return the aircraft to the hangar.

Gavin happy to fly.

Scratch was also at the club to work on the new generator ready for installation in the generator shed. Before this he sorted the brakes on one of the quads. Well done Scratch as usual.

Only 8 flights, but we made the best of the day. Thank you to Phil and Malcolm for sharing the winching and not managing to fly.

Peter Howarth

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