As the seasons change from summer to autumn, my mind turned to John Keats (1795 –1821) and his poem "To Autumn".
"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;"
Which summed up the weather this morning as I drove from Cornwall to Devon after taking a diversion to avoid the broken down school bus at the exit of my village. On the vantage point of the A390 at St. Ann's Chapel I was greeted by a watery sun peeping through the mist on the higher ground whilst the Tamar Valley was shrouded in cloud. Skysight 's forecast predicted a low cloud base all day, too low for flying, so I was surprised to see the winch out of the hangar ready to be deployed to the east end when I arrived.
However, despite the keenness of the Wednesday Wavers the gliders remained in the hangar as the two flight instructors inspected the field and ruminated on the weather. It was just us today, as strangely there were no visitor flights booked, so there were no phone calls to the clubhouse to field.
It's school half-term, so we were joined by Juniors Matthew and his younger brother Hugo who were eager to fly. In the clubhouse, I filed the paperwork documenting the recent fitting of new brake shoes to K-13s FSD and FGR. I also unpacked a parcel from Navboys which contained the components needed to improve the FLARM installation and display in the Puchacz. Basically, we will match the installation of the other club gliders by mounting a simple FLARM LED displays for both the front and rear pilots.
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A FLARM LED display
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Over teas a discussion on FLARM started, and it was clear that whilst we waited for the weather it was an appropriate time to deliver the FLARM lecture. Afterwards Mike Jardine asked me to brief on the RASP forecast which can be summed up by "the temperature difference of 2C between the air temperature and the dew point indicates that cloud base would initially be 400 feet above the airfield rising to 800 feet by mid-afternoon". Prophetic words, but they didn't deter the Wednesday Wavers for trying.
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Gavin delivers a lecture on FLARM and how to use it effectively
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Stripped, battered, and bruised DMX's fuselage ready for is final flight to the scrapyard
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We weren't ready to fly, so the fuselage of DMX was removed from
the twin-axle AMF trailer, which was fortuitously parked alongside the
clubhouse. Almost all useful items had previously been removed, but the
skid needed to come
off. A few other items, such as cable release balls, were carefully
removed. The fuselage was then taken to behind the trailer park ready
for cutting up and its final disposal. The CAA will be informed that
DMX has
been scrapped, and the glider will be deregistered. The tailplane and
wings have been retained as spares.
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Mike and Hugh rig their Club Libelle while Phil offers sage advice
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Then the starting flag was dropped by the Duty Instructor. We got the
gliders out of the hangar and deployed them to the west end to
accommodate the southerly, backing south-easterly, wind. The winch was
set up at the east end.
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John Smith conducts a Daily Inspection on an autumnal looking K-8
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While the daily inspections were underway, Colin arrived and continued work on the repair to Sean Westrope's Port wing, just forward of the air brake box. He is at the stage of applying fine surface filler prior to applying fabric.
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Colin continues the repairs of Sean Westrope's K-6e wing
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As there were still projects continuing in the hangar and
clubhouse, a skeleton crew (are we getting near Halloween?) launched
Geoff and Mike for a weather check. After a circuit, they landed and
the Duty Instructor stated that the cloud base was not high enough to
operate, so the Wavers returned to the clubhouse for an early lunch.
The weather confirmed the decision by starting to drizzle, followed by
light rain and then rain.
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Wisely, no member got between the Duty Instructor and his (late) lunch
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As we enjoyed an early lunch (which was a late lunch by the Duty
Instructor's standards) I set up the projector and afterwards we enjoyed
some training videos by Mike Fox (The former BGA training standards
manager). We watched a demonstration on maintaining the correct
separation in thermals, then spin avoidance including why not to
over-rudder the final turn to the airfield, and a general gliding video.
After lunch, it was still inclement, and so the decision was taken to pack up and put the toys away. Meanwhile, the simulator was being worked on by John Allan as part of the improvement project. Before that could happen, the operation of all the controls needed to be checked.
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The controls of the simulator get some attention
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Following on from the early FLARM discussion, Hugh registered his
FLARM ID on Flarm.net and the Open Gliding Network. Later, David
registered his K-6. This will allow their registrations, G-DDVM
and G-DHEB, respectively, to be displayed on aviation Apps such as Guide
and Seek, and Flight Radar 24.
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Chairman, Steve Lewis, and John Allan discuss plans for the simulator refurbishment
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After the simulator work, Steve and John engaged in deep discussions on what we really wanted, or needed, from the Solar set in the clubhouse.
With the gliders still wet the Duty Instructor called it a day and so we packed away the toys.
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The gliders return ready for hangar packing
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Although not brought to the launch point, the Puchacz need to be put back in position in hangar following investigations into battery connections and their security.
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Dave Bourchier hard at work inspecting and improving the glider battery connectors.
"I love the smell of solder in the morning!"
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Hangar packing can commence following checking and testing of the battery
connections in the Puchacz.
Note that Colin is still working on Sean's wing.
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After the closing the hangar doors, members derigged privateer DVM under a glorious sky
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Today, we didn't match Saturday's launch total of 50 flights but, we went through the motions; got all the kit out, flew a test flight, and put it all back again. The Wednesday Wavers shouldn't be disappointed a lot of work was completed, or progressed, on tasks around the site that will pay dividends on a flying day.
With that, I'll let Keats finish off today's blog:
"While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, and touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;""
Gavin Short
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