Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 16th October 2021

 Arriving at the airfield in thick fog I was amazed to be told that up to 5 minutes earlier the sky had been clear. The gliders were already out so there was nothing for it but to have a cup of tea and wait. Meanwhile we had plenty of time to discuss the forecast wind direction. The consensus was for SSE at 8 knots. Airfield set up and then wait some more.

Getting the gliders out in the sunshine

And 5 minutes later

Time to wait

Eventually gaps started to appear with a little sunshine. First flight at 12.09 revealed that although a full height launch was achieved there was still a lot of lower cloud about. Another half hour wait and the sky had cleared nicely. 

Cloud base rising from the launchpoint

That's more like it - game on

We welcomed 2 One Day Course Candidates today. Economics Professor  Julian Jameson flew an initial familiarisation flight with IFP Gavin Short before flying the rest of his course with me except for the last 2 flights which were conducted by Mike Jardine. Julian enjoyed several short soaring flights and was making a really good job of flying the glider by the end of the day. 

Julian waiting with Gavin

Julian and Gavin on approach

Julian and myself at the end of the day

The second One Day Course Candidate was with  junior Jimi Hammonds. Jimi's familiarisation flight was with IFP Scratch ( Dene Hitchen ) and then he flew the rest of his course with me. A mix of extended circuits and soaring flights gave Jimi plenty of time to get to grips with the controls. Smiling faces all around.

Jimi and Scratch ready for the first flight

And returning to the airfield

A what of the rest of the flying? Cloud base remained mostly around 1300ft QFE ( above the airfield ). this came as a bit of a surprise to at least one SF27 pilot who launched to 1350ft. Most flights were extended circuits with some managing a little more. Longest flight in the SF27 was Malcolm Wilton-Jones at 40 minutes with Gavin just 2 minutes behind at 38 minutes. Longest 2 seater flight was John Allan ( with Mike Jardine ) at 27 minutes.   Last flight of the day was just before 6pm by which time the dew was already forming once again.

Looking down at the runway from today's cloudbase

K13 G-DCCY coming to share your thermal

End of the day? Not quite. Apart from putting the gliders, winches and vehicles away, The 2 K8s were swapped around with FXB being put in the storage container while GDK was moved to the hangar. Elsewhere, the hurdle fence was reinstalled.

Getting GDK's wing out of the container

Swapping gliders around seems to be a team sport

A good day.

Steve