Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 10th October 2020

 Today's forecast provided the first challenge of the day with strong(ish) gusty NW winds with frequent showers giving way to longer periods of rain later. The aircraft provided the next challenge with K13 G-DDMX being off line for some TLC. To mitigate this I completed Colin's weighing of (new to us) K13 G-DCCY which after a thorough DI and test flight was released for club use.

Another shower approaches
Meanwhile, today's instructor Mike Jardine had commenced working through his list in K113 G-CHXP with a flight with experienced pilot Mike Bennett followed by John Allen, Chris Maciejowski and David Archer.

CFI mark Courtney waiting with CCY
Mark, me ( about to don face mask,
assisted by David Weeks

After clearing CCY to fly, I used it to fly with CFI Mark Courtney for my annual revalidation flights. This we completed in two flights including the usual practice cable break. This allowed me to continue in the aircraft with today's One Day Course candidate Steven Wright who was spending the day with us.

One day Course candidate Steven Wright.
CCY on the wire
The showers came and went throughout the day causing delays in the flying programme and giving the members a lot of extra work drying off the aircraft. There was no soaring to be had but that did not stop people trying with the SF27 accounting for 5 out of today's 33 flights.

Another shower passing by
We were well blessed with instructors today. Rick Wiles helped me out with my additional One Day Course Simon Vallance who returned today after we started his course a couple of weeks ago but stopped due to the very lively rotor conditions. Thanks Rick.

Simon Vallance waiting to complete his One Day Course with Rick
SF27 on approach with CCY following behind
Roger Green and Mark Courtney took advantage of a lull in the programme for CYY to complete Roger's annual BI revalidation. Excellent news.

Some of the views today were stunning.
Mark's photo of the runway from the SW corner
So what did we achieve. Well 33 flights later we have completed 2 One Day Courses, revalidated 2 Basic Instructors, progressed the members training and challenged the solo pilots with some flying in the SF27 in the breezy conditions and finally managed to repack the hangar with 3 K13s, a K8 and the SF27 using the new packing plan. Whew!

Steve 

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