Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 13th October 2024

Looking out of the window when I woke up I could instantly see the weather wasn’t following the met office sunny forecast. Although overcast, the cloud base was high so an optimistic crew arrived at the airfield. The RASP turned out to be correct with no real chance of meaningful lift under an overcast sky. Our regular Sunday Duty Instructor Peter Howarth was unavailable today, visiting yet more of Plymouth's restaurants, did someone mention there was a rumour of a food blog?

Mike Jardine stepped in to cover and I was the duty IFP. Mike had 6 members requiring instruction, and I had 3 trial flights to deliver.

It was just 4 degrees C with a little wind chill as well but as the day wore on and the wind picked up it just got colder.

Mike and David DI FGR. Lovely sky captured by Ed Borlase.

John Osment was the star of the day, after being put through his paces by Mike he re-solo’d after a 25 year break, well done John. With so few ‘old hands’ on the field the newer members were in at the deep end running the field which they did perfectly. A big thank you to Sean Westrope and Ed Borlase for each doing 4 hours in the winch.  It was great to see Ray Boundy back at the field and helping out and a big thank you to George Purkiss for driving the retrieve and helping out. The conditions were never going to be great for soaring but they were benign, so good for training.

John demonstrating that the magic  touch hasn’t left him.

John clearly looking forward to his solo flight.

John off for his first solo after a 25 year gap.

And off he goes with a wave of the hand!

John still smiling for the rest of the day.

Geoff Cooper, David Osment, Julia Old, Freddie Purkiss and Darren Clark all flew with Mike and made good progress.

Ed chose to fly the K8 and Sean the Astir to keep current. Julia Old managed the longest flight of 12 minutes.

My first trial flight visitor was Annie Howes. I think she enjoyed it judging by the number of times she said amazing and thank you.

Annie Howes ready to be amazed.

My second trial flight was with 13 year old Oscar Ferris who with his brother, had never flown before. Whilst a little nervous at first there were lots of ‘wows’ and smiles in the air.

Oscar being briefed by Steve.

My last Trial flight was 11 year old Seb Ferris, who nervous at first, throughly enjoyed the experience of flying and was still smiling when he left the airfield.

Seb and Steve waiting to launch.

A grey sky, but at least we flew.

28 flights in all on a very cold October day.

Thanks to everyone for turning up and thanks to Mike, Ed and David for the pictures.

Steve Fletcher

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 9th October 2024

A forecast of a NNW wind slowly increasing, a low cloudbase slowly rising and possible heavy showers.

When I set off cloudbase was 5-600’ asl and there were several showers encountered on the way and I was level with cloud coming up through Chillaton. The club gliders were moved out of the hangar to permit some work on a private glider and FGR had its tailplane assembly removed for a 500 flight check.

Colin assisted by Peter giving the k13 tailplane its 500 launch checks     Photo by Mike Jardine

Gliders ready for DI’s Photo by Mike Jardine

The cloudbase appeared to be rising so the club gliders were DI’d and taken to the east end. Just before noon flying commenced with Mike Jardine doing a test flight in FGR following its inspection. With lots of customer’s for the Ka-13s and limited time left the solo pilots helped with winching, cable retrieving and looking after the launch point.

Charlie Benham enjoying the start of his one-day course with Phil Hardwick Photo by Peter Howarth

Neal Oxley waits for his first launch with Mike Jardine Photo by Peter Howarth

John Allan sets off for a likely looking cloud but was soon back on the ground. Photo by Peter Howarth

Gary Hine waits for his first launch with Phil Hardwick. Photo by Peter Howarth

Dave Archer looking for lift whilst avoiding the showers Photo by Mike Jardine

K8 on a modified circuit following a launch failure Photo by Mike Jardine

Showers approaching from the west. Photo by Mike Jardine

Showers passing by on the east. Photo by Mike Jardine

As can be seen showers were approaching from the north-east and cloudbase was lowering so with most having flown we opted to call it a day and fly everything back to the hangar so I prepared the Astir for a hangar flight.

Astir at the back of the queue for hangar flights with a rainbow above the tail. Photo by Malcolm Wilton-Jones

Ka-8 and Astir waiting. Photo by Malcolm Wilton-Jones

Cable being attached for the Ka-8 hangar flight Photo by Malcolm Wilton-Jones

John Smith taking up slack for his hangar flight in the Ka-8 Photo by Malcolm Wilton-Jones

Blog by Malcolm Wilton-Jones

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 2nd October 2024

A brisk north-north-east wind, stronger at height, was forecast but the cloudbase was very low initially but some members were rigging their own gliders in the hope of wave.

Club gliders being DI’d in the morning. Image from John Allen

Another two club gliders undergoing Daily inspections. Image from John Allen

Andy Davey is first off in search of wave,
he was back 5 minutes later! Image by Neal Oxley

A short time later Make Jardine shows Geoff Cooper
how  to do a weather check. Image by Neal Oxley

We had two voucher visitors today, Brian North and Nigel Matthews, who were flown with Phil Hardwick and Steve Fletcher in the Puchacz.

Brian North with Steve    Image Peter Howarth

Nigel Matthews with Steve and Phil    Image Peter Howarth

A handful of students were flown mostly by Mike Jardine with a little help from Peter Howarth in the two K-13s.

Peter Howarth is about to give John Osment
a Launch Failure. Image by  Mike Jardine

Final approach in the Ka-13. Image by  Mike Jardine

I had been on the winch since the start through until after lunch and on arrival at the launch point none of the solo pilots wanted to fly so I decided to try a couple of launches in the Astir CS77. On the first one I flew NE past Mary Tavy and Blackdown but found nothing until on the base leg I found a band of lift. On the second launch to 1350’ I flew SE and stayed above 1300’ for a few minutes. I then noticed a K-13 circling near the spot I had found lift earlier so decided to join it. Arrived just below it at about 800’ and the vario started to sing. We were both trying to centre on a narrow core and keep opposite each other and climbing slowly and trading places but drifting downwind. As I climbed past the Ka-13 he left to head back but I also gave up when I could not get above 1100’. On the way back I found another core but it also petered out at 1100’ and I found no more and landed after 23 minutes. The Ka-13 had made 15 minutes, and these remained the longest flights of the day.

Julia climbing in a weak thermal.

Plymouth in the distance. Image by Mike Jardine

Airfield from the east. Image by Mike Jardine

By this time all the other solo pilots were still trying to find the elusive wave but the best efforts were around 11 minutes.

38 launches.

Malcolm Wilton-Jones

Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 21st September 2024

As always the weather would be key to today. There were dire warnings of potential thunderstorms and torrential rain. Initially there was a lot of low cloud. In fact for the first couple of hours Brentor Church was not visible from the West end launchpoint. The wind was easterly as forecast; forecast to be anywhere between 6 and 15 knots, The soundings did not look great for wave. The wind strength was not really increasing with height and the inversion was weak. However, at DGS we have learned that if the wind has some east in it then there is always a possibility of wave. Today was no exception

Looking towards the east. Wave cloud at the top of the photo.
Cap cloud sitting on the Tors

As the cloudbase started to rise. Rick and I took the opportunity for a couple of practice cable breaks for my BI revalidation while there was not enough height for a full launch. Shortly after this, it was apparent that there was a wave slot out over the valley and it was game on. Andy Dave and Sean Westrope launched in a brace of Libelles and promptly disappeared. 

Andy ready to go in his Libelle ( the nose of Sean's glider behind)

Lift off

Heading into a classic wave sky

Will he reach the wave (Edge of the Dark cloud)?

My first flight with One Day Course candidate Lucas Pitcher followed shortly after and shows the early conditions

Lucas looks relaxed

"We launched K13 G-CFSD through very mild turbulence ( probably rotor ). Releasing at 1350 ft we pushed forward to the east in lively rotor. Just before the edge of the cloud, the lift smoothed out as we entered the wave. Once in front of the cloud the lift increased to a smooth 4 to 6 knots knots which we used to surf north and south up through a long(ish) gap in the cloud eventually popping out over the top at 4600 ft, where we were treated to a fabulous vista with a bright blue sky above with a shining white cloudscape. From this vantage point it was obvious that we had climbed up using a secondary wave bar; the primary was still well to the east of us. but it's cloud top seemed to be about the same height. Had I been flying solo I would have pushed forward to the primary but as this was a lesson, the gap we were in provided a great chance to delivery the controls lesson. After half and hour or so the gap started closing, initially with bridges forming between the upwind  and downwind cloud banks. Time to go. A high speed, full airbrake decent brought us down into the dark grey gloomy world below the cloudbase for an uneventful circuit and landing.".

Heading south along the secondary wave bar with...

The back edge of the primary to the left

Gavin Short also got to the wave in his Standard Cirrus. Here are some of his photos.

Spectacular view of a wave bar ahead heading south

The clouds above seem to be wave clouds too

Gavin looking pleased with himself

As the day warmed up the wave system broke down with most flights scratching around for little bits of thermals. However, when the afternoon cooled the wave reset and after 5pm there were several more extended wave flights.

The wave reformed in the early evening

We had a couple of visiting pilots today. Michelle Strickland and James Fowkes where in the area from their homebase at Rattlesden Gliding Club, an ex bomber command airfield near Bury St Edmonds to explore what flying in hilly terrain would be like. Their home site is surrounded by absolutely flat countyside. They had a couple of check flights each before flying the Astir on and off throughout the day.

As always, club training continued at pace. Highlight of the day for me was the Zack Smith's first flight controlling all of the launch and landing. Well done.

Zack looking laid back after his sucess.

A busy day with some great wave. And the dire warnings for torrential rain and thunderstorms - we didn't see any of that at all.

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 18th September 2024

 With recent excitement regarding the possibility of wave today on the forum and chats the early activity at the club when I arrived indicated the optimism. The forecast easterly was in practice more north easterly, but there were signs around that there might be wave present.

Andy Davey was keen to get in the air, so after a morning brief he took a launch. His account follows:-

Wednesday wave. I was meant to be at Portmoak in Scotland for the wave but with easterly wind forecast there was no chance. So was it worth the 588 mile drive home for the wave at Brentor? There was evidence of wave when I arrived at the club so with the glider on line I took a launch to 1650ft (thanks Richard). I now needed to make a decision go straight out towards the moor or turn left and head for some wave looking cloud I made the wrong one when I arrived at what I thought would be a wave bar I found nothing but sink and at 750ft had to scuttle home. Luckily the second cable was still there so I took a second launch at the top turn left towards a good looking wave bar. Just over 2km north of the field contacted the lift and started to climb away slowly at first then the lift improved. Once above 4500ft was able to use the wave over the danger area and eventually managed a clime to just over 7800ft. The lift then started to fade so I decide to see if there was a wave bar down wind of the airfield and there was one running from Gunnislake to Roadford but this was also fading so it was time to land. Was it worth the drive yes. Moral of the story the early bird catches the wave.

Andy established in the wave.

Climbing well at 5500ft.

I took a quick launch in the K13 to check conditions before training began. With little turbulence on the launch and approach it was deemed suitable for both training and visitor flying to take place. I would gradually work through the list of trainees today. John Osment, David Osment, Geoff Cooper, Viktor Skochko and Loraine Kindley. All made progress in their individual ways.

Viktor keeping a good lookout.

Hazy view to the south.

Duty IFP today would also have a busy schedule today with four visitors. Hugh's first visitor was Ollie George. A 2nd year student from South Molton. An 18th birthday present from his parents, he enjoyed two flights thrilled with the launches and aspires to be a pilot.

Ollie ready with Hugh.

Returning visitor Clare Matthews had a flight with Hugh before the next arranged visitor Peter Northmore arrived. Peter is a retired probation service employee from Launceston. He had three flights the third of which was an extended flight in weak thermals.

Peter receiving his certificate.

Jim Bishop was next to fly with Hugh. Jim is a drone pilot so was at ease when Hugh side slipped on the approach of the second flight.

Jim ready to go,

The last visitor today was Richard Follett. A retired CAD and 3D rendering specialist was bought the voucher as a birthday present. He arrive with friend Jim Bishop to share the experience with.

Richard with a happy Hugh.

Clare who flew earlier had another two flights with BI Scratch and her partner Paul Mitchell had two flights with BI Gavin to end a good day flying. 42 flights achieved flying from the west end is always a great day. Only one wave flight, but all had a good day flying. Thank you all for your help today.

Peter Howarth