Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 4th October 2026

After last nights successsful barbeque, and seeing only a few of the Saturday trainees around, I was expecting another busy Sunday. Fortunately it turned out the usual number of trainees arrived so my fears were allayed. The forecast was for a light breeze all day and some possible soaring during the afternoon. A couple of K6's were rigged, so only the K13, Twin Astir and Astir 77 were required from the club fleet.

Trainees today included Jess Nicholson, Aiden Hughes, Eleanor Hattersly and Richard Hattersly. First today was Jess. After her three flights she had flown her first complete flight from take-off to landing.

Jess ready for her first complete flight.

Next trainee was Aiden Hughes. One of his flights included five practice launch failure recoveries. This is a good way of doing many recovery practices without causing too much disruption to general flying.

Aiden prepares to fly.

It was time for me to swap gliders. Eleanor and Richard Hattersley are getting to grips with the Twin Astir and are starting to do coordinated turns.

Eleanor looking forward to another flight.

Richard off on another flight.

Today's Introductory Flight Pilot was Steve Fletcher. Steve would welcome and fly with three visitors today. First to arrive was Rhiannon Daniels.

Steve settling Rhiannon into the Twin Astir.

Off they go.

The second visitor was Nick Palmer.

Nick and Steve after his flight.

As the Twin Astir was being used for training, Steve's last visitor Paul Elms was flown in the K13.

Paul and Steve after his flight.

The solo pilots either flew their K6's or the Astir 77. There had been a couple of extended circuits, but it was Ed Borlase who struck it lucky to claim flight of the day with 38 minutes.

Viktor glad to be flying DKG again.

Sean launching in the Astir 77.

Air Cadet instructors Harley Brockhouse and Grace Cartwright returned to have a couple of flights with us after a period away flying with the Cadets.

Thanks to all at the airfield today. 31 flights and some good progress with training.

Peter Howarth

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 7th October 2026

In East Cornwall, there was rain overnight and a fresh northerly breeze whilst driving to the club.  No visitors today.  Time to have a look at the main wheel of the Twin Astir, DSL, to find out why it's making graunching sounds.

With the other Twin Astir, HBK offline while we source a replacement brake master cylinder, a K-13, FGR was available if the Wavers went flying.  Aircraft availability isn't as bad as it might at first seem, as K-13, FSD has a fresh ARC and can be rigged if required.

However, Andy's forecast, didn't hold out much hope of us flying today:

Wednesday Weather

High pressure is pushing in from the SW with a weak cold front clearing the field sometime in the morning; the actual weather will depend on the timing of the front.

Wind initially north but going NW as the day progresses, speed 16kts with some lively gusts. Once the low cloud and rain clears, there may be some weak thermal activity, but it won’t be usable due to the wind strength.

The midday synoptic chart from the Met Office

Skysight's Windgram showed a clearer picture of what to expect.  Note the strong northerly wind, that would be full cross on our runway.

And indeed it was raining when I arrived and continued to do so through most of the morning.  The wood burner had been lit, the first time this autumn, and the tea made.  Although initially the wind wasn't that strong, there was little hope of the hangar doors being opened in earnest as it strengthened during the day.

No morning brief, but the Wavers swung into action on the many tasks to be accomplished to keep the club operating smoothly of which I observed but some.

Peter, Phil and I opened the hangar doors to let some light in and move the Astir CS77 out just enough to allow access to Twin Astir DSL.  Phil and Peter got the glider up on the hangar dolly on the second attempt.  The Twin Astir is a lot heavier than the Puchacz that the hangar dolly was originally made for.  With that, the dynamic duo set to work dropping the main wheel and stripping things down to investigate a noisy wheel brake. 

Scratch was busy in his workshop and the Motor Transport hangar making improvements to both the automatic and the manual winch.  Occasionally a winch engine would rev up to "max chat" during the day while testing.

We welcomed some visitors, old friends Heather Horswill and Barry Green, who came to see how the club had been getting on.  Heather was pleased to be back, and despite the Wavers trying to hold her back she got her hands in the sink and on the cleaning materials.  Some things never change!  Barry was given the grand tour to show off the new fleet and describe the many developments.  

The warmth of our new wood burner being much appreciated by the Wavers as the northerly wind freshened, leading the Chairman to declare, "Its getting nautical out there".

We had another visitor; Jamie McCullum, a Kiwi currently living near Truro.  He is an 18yro Cornish Air Cadet who came up to see us as he is interested in learning to glide.  To date he had two launches with the Air Cadets and an aerotow flight at Seahawk Gliding Club which lasted almost an hour.  Additionally, he had some powered air experience.

Ironic, that yet another Junior comes to Dartmoor Gliding Society to learn to fly.  Maybe we should arrange a direct liaison or offer glider flights to the air cadets.

Jamie spent most of the he day with CFI, Rick, with training lectures,  filling out a training card, and several simulator sessions.  He left in the afternoon seemingly enthusiastic to continue.  We look forward to seeing him return.

When not teaching Jamie, Rick spent time with members to get to grips with the Glider Pilot logbook which is a development of the earlier glider log book spreadsheet.  The Glider Pilot Logbook is a web application for glider pilots.  It helps pilots record flights, manage their digital logbook.  Take a look.  It is designed to be used by any glider pilot nit just DGS members.

The Glider Pilot Logbook

Clubhouse tidying up was under way;  sorting Seahawk supplies which included very useful winch launching cable fittings.   DB was in his element.  Outside the former and current site managers were reviewing the contents of the green container and discussing the potential build of a new log store.

I continued with more panel diagnostics inside and then went outside with Mike Bennett to load up firmware to his Red Box Flarm and see that his glider's were correctly shown on Glide and Seek.

Phil and Peter identified the problem with DSL  The anchor bolt in the anchor plate had moved inwards allowing the brake shoes to twist under braking and cause metal to metal contact.  Hence the graunching.  The bolt was pressed back into the plate using the workbench vice and a permanent solution planned.

The maintenance team discussed the various options that GROB (LTB- Linder) and TOST had offered as a solution to the obsolete and defective brake master cylinder in the Twin Astir Trainer, HBK which had sprung a hydraulic leak.

A 1974-1980 R-Series BMW motorcycle brake master cylinder.  Anyone got one handy?

Fitting a TOST universal brake master cylinder looked to be the preferred option. The downside is the need to make a dedicated bracket and adjuster to make it work.

Pretty young thing seeks master for an arresting performance

DGS has a wealth of talent.  Scratch looked up classic BMW motor parts on the "Bay of Eels" and found a second hand brake master cylinder.  He offered to research some more and contact the classic BMW owners club to find a service kit or better still a reconditioned master cylinder.  As a classic car owner I should have know better that there would be spares out there.

Jobs complete, the Wavers opted for an early stack and departed into the pleasant afternoon sunshine, that is, if you managed to keep out of the chilling wind.  Roll on Saturday for a chance to go flying.

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 30th September 2026

The Equilux (equal day and night) happened last Friday, so I shouldn't have been surprised that it was still dark when the alarm clock went off, and I let "Mackle" the cat out into the rain.  He's got such a thick coat that he doesn't care about the rain.  Mere mortals not so much.

Weather: I could just say see above. But it was a bit more nuanced than that.  The front had passed through during the night, leaving low cloud and a strong blustery southerly wind, i.e. full cross on the runway.  Not very conducive to flying or indeed pleasant.  Many Wednesday Wavers thought so, and so the turnout today was low.  Fortunately, as the Duty Basic Instructor, I didn't have any visitors to cancel.

So it was a day for rigging the Astir CS77 after its annual inspection.  The battery installation needed to be completed before fitting the repaired seat and side panels, with their covers now properly stuck down.  The glider was rigged and taped following a little instruction on the operation of the GROB Astir rotating collar sleeves.  This design needs a little bit of thought as to how they work, as it does away with a conventional main pin, or pins, to secure the wings to the glider.  The canopy was not fitted to allow maximum time for any residual fumes from the seat upholstery repairs to dissipate.

Instrument panel fault-finding in the clubhouse (Club Libelle and Standard Cirus, behind)

Mike Bennett and Gavin worked on their instrument panels, fault-finding, making repairs and fettling. 

A wonky view of Gavin's panel

In the trailer park, Mike Jardine was improving his Flarm set-up by repositioning the UHF antenna and testing.  Later, there was more serious work being undertaken.

Oh No! What has happened here?

Ahh.  All is clear now. 
Dave Archer is involved in some extreme fettling,
or Pilot Owner Maintenance in technical parlance.

This work is to rectify a rudder pedal rubbing problem.

Meanwhile, in the hangar, what could be described as a "leisurely rig" was underway.  Sometimes many hands don't make for light work.

Astir CS77, DNE rigged and taped, ready to go back in the hangar

Throughout the day, there was the sound of a circular saw as John Smith continued to work on the frame for the solar panel on the roof of the glider workshop.  Although we need, at the moment, to run the generator for power tools, the solar set was generating significant power and topping up the 5 kW battery when the sun poked through the clouds.  Impressive stuff.

The Waver's work is done; the hangar doors are shut.

No flying today, but much was achieved.  Roll on Saturday.

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 26th September 2026

The morning briefing outlined considerable variation in the weather forecast depending on which model it was based on. RASP was the only one with forecast winds in the north. All the others were southerly. RASP predicted a blue sky day with 8 hours of sunshine. A look out of the window proved that wrong with considerable cloud in view. 

Not exactly a blue sky day

Due to the unfavourable weather forecast for tomorrow, today we had 9 trainees on the flying list. Rick managed this with help from Chris Bryning and Steve Moore and have both a K13 and Twin Astir available all day. Lots of training progress was made.

Training flight on approach

And off again

We welcomed 2 visitors for One Day Courses Sylvia Price and Robin Lawrence. Both courses were completed using Twin Astir DSL flying circuits / extended circuits.

Robin receiving his Certificate from Scratch

Sylvia waiting to go

Try as they might both solo pilots and Instructors struggled to find lift to extend their flights. At 2.50pm Gavin Short managed to find some rising air ( possibly a convergence ) and managed 25 minutes in the K8 followed by Ed Nicholson flying solo in the K13 who launched 5 minutes later and soaring for 12 minutes. And then the lift was gone again.

K6 on approach

A mackerel sky late afternoon

Not all the best news came from our home airfield. Jamie Young was away flying at North Hill to complete his skills test for his SPL. He passed this and will shortly be the holder of a shiny new SPL ( Sailplane Pilot Licence ). Well done Jamie.

FI Mark Courtney congratulates Jamie

As the kit was put away at the end of the day the Committee started their regular meeting to review the club's progress and plan future enhancements.

A good training day.

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 23rd September 2026

After several days of grey mizzle, the weather brightened up on Tuesday afternoon.   So would Wednesday be flyable? Could we finish the annual inspection of the Astir CS77 and bring it back into service?  How would the upgraded solar set perform?  Lots of questions to be answered.

It looked quite promising on the way to the club.  The murk over the moors seemed to break up, and the sun came out until the last mile.  At the club, the cloud was on the deck, and heavy drizzle interrupted getting the gliders out and their daily inspections.

In the hangar, the extant items from the annual inspection of the Atsir CS77: suspected rubbing main wheel and a less-than-optimal trim system were being investigated alongside fitting an ARC certificate and a new placard in the cockpit, and renewing some faded instrument panel labels.  

In the clubhouse, I spent hours sorting the mess that is DNE's seat and its covering, the Dynafoam cushion, and Dzus connectors.  After a considerable amount of glueing with copious amounts of Evostick, I decided that the fumes had definitely put me on the wrong side of the mnemonic IM SAFE, and so I didn't venture up to the east end to fly.  Who needs a glider to do that anyway?

The DGS maintenance team (three in this picture)
tackles the problem of a suspected rubbing mainwheel

Despite the weather, the morning brief went ahead. Today the Wavers had two flight instructors, Peter and Rick, to accommodate the trainees and to optimise the use of the weather window that was due to emerge.

The sky over the airfield convinced me that the real action was to be had in the hangar,
 not the launch point

Stevie Lewis and DB drop the main wheel of the Astir CS77 to reprofile the brake shoes 

The gliders were launching from the east end, but there was other activity at the west end in addition to that in the hangar.  The "Night Owl" and Steve Lesson conferred and set the right settings on the 5kW battery pack so that the controller and battery could talk to each other, and we were off; charging even under a dull, drizzly sky.  Steve then fitted a junction box and, having bought more cable, wired up the second bank of eight solar panels.  Proof of concept was boiling an electric kettle for a well-earned cup of tea.

Steve Lesson is somewhere in this picture, wiring up the second bank of eight solar panels

At the East end, flying was underway. Peter kicked off with three training flights for Ray, while Phil flew his first visitor, Ian Barker, who hails from Teignmouth.  Ian had been a glider pilot in the dim and distant past, achieving solo status and a Silver C, and flying at numerous clubs around the country.  After careful consideration by the Duty Instructors, it was decided that he should fly with Phil.  Ian's wife, who had witnessed him fly at Challock (Kent Gliding Club), was adamant that she didn't want to fly in a glider.  However, by the time they left the site, she was warming to the idea of a glider flight.  Maybe we will see the Barkers again.

Rick flew a set of three with Robin, which involved stall exercises, and Peter flew a set with Neal.  The highlight for Neal was five simulated launch failures within a three-minute flight! 

The K-8, FXB, with a recently replaced tail skid rubber block, was in action with some of the usual Wednesday Wavers: Steve Fletcher, John Smith, Malcolm and John Allan.  Malcolm managed to conjure up lift where seemingly there was none, to achieve the flight of the day of 17 minutes.

Dave Osment's K-6 was in action, not only flown by him but also by Mike Bennett and Peter when Dave was converting to the Twin Astir.  Peter was keen to keep his instructor's solo hours up, even if it was just a circuit!

Phil's second visitor, Phil Askew from Looe, came to the airfield with his wife for a pair of flights.  The weather had brightened and warmed up, and pilots were now in short sleeves.   Visibility was much improved, allowing Phil a view along the South Coast.  Perhaps he could just about see Looe!  Phil's second flight was an extended one, in fact the second longest of the day, which gave him more time to admire the views of the tors.

Phil squared!  Phil Askew gets ready for his flight with BI Phil Hardwick

And the "Phil Airways" flight comes safely back to earth 

Rick continued Ivan's training in the Twin Astir HBK before flying Dave Osment to get him used to glass.  By now Peter had worked through his trainees for the day, so Steve Fletcher took Ray aloft in FGR to maintain his currency in flying from the back seat.  Rick, having flown all his trainees, flew HBK solo for a hangar landing

Back in the clubhouse, at the end of the day, with the hangar doors closed, we received some good news.  The British Gliding Association had ratified Andy Davey's 500 km Diamond Goal flight.  His flight from Brentor - Bodmin South West - Ashbury (just south of Oxford) - Brentor on Sunday 23 August covered 510 km.  This was the first 500 km flown from Brentor and completes the requirements for a Diamond Badge, Andy having previously been awarded a Diamond for height gain (5,000m) and a Diamond for a 300km Goal flight.  The  Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) should allocate a Diamond Badge number for Andy in the next few days.  Since 1949, some 7,600 glider pilots across the world have achieved this level of achievement.  Congratulations Andy in joining that elite club.

The Wednesday Wavers headed home on what had become a pleasant, almost balmy, evening after 30 flights made, encompassing two visitors, five trainees and great progress in bringing the Astir CS77 close to being back online.  A new battery box to be fitted on Saturday and a clean and polish of the fuselage should see it ready for rigging and a test flight. 

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 20th September 2026

Aaaaargh!!! No flying yesterday resulted in nine possible trainees arriving today, so how to manage the day was my first priority whilst the assembled members set about setting the field up. Steve Fletcher would look after the days only visitor and as two of the trainees were father & daughter Eleanor and Richard Hattersley who joined as full members today, Phil Hardwick stepped up and volunteered to fly them. This left seven trainees to fly with me, so at the daily briefing I declared there would only be two flights each to give me a chance to at least allow all to fly.

Twin Astir G-DDSL waits for a decision.

First to fly with me was Ed Nicholson. I soon realised that I would have to break my rule of only two flights. A couple of launch failures and a good circuit, I made the decision time was right for Ed's first solo.

Ed receiving his solo briefing.

Hooked on by sister Jess.

Safely back with a smooth landing.

After this early excitement it was back to the training list. Jess was next to fly with me and she is starting to fly the circuit and early part of the approach.

Jess excited after Ed's success.

Steve's visitor arrived. Ottilia Pochat enjoyed two flights with Steve in Twin Astir HBK.

Ottilia receiving her certificate from Steve.

I would steadily work through the rest of the flying list. Rowan Guest, Aiden Hughes, Misha Skochko, Ivan Foster and David Moorley. As mentioned before Phil Hardwick flew with Eleanor and Richard Hattersley.

Ivan ready to fly.

David happy to be back flying again.

Eleanor about to fly with dad Richard learning how to hook on.

With only the K8 available for the solo pilots it was a steady progress through their list. John Allan, John Osment, Sean Westrope, John Smith, Viktor Skochko and Ed Borlase each too their turns.

Viktor preparing to fly.

Ed taking a break from photography.

So a very busy day, but we got through it. 35 flights, one new solo pilot, two new members and some tired but happy pilots. A big thank you to all at the club that enabled the flying list to be completed. Not an ideal situation having to reduce the number of flights each, but at least everybody flew.

We even had an air-prox today which was caught on camera.

Two Buzzards in close formation.

Finally after everything was packed away it was time to present Ed with his wings.

Ed receiving his wings.

Peter Howarth

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 16th September 2026

The Weather for the Wednesday Wavers: Wind northwesterly.  The cloud base would rise mid-morning.  The air would remain damp throughout the day, with a risk of showers that might lessen as the day progressed. So a day of circuits, perhaps with a few exceptions.

Skysight's windgram for the day.  Perhaps a tad on the optimistic side!

So why the change of weather over the last month?  Those who watch the Met Office's "Deep dive" on YouTube know that our weather is all to do with the position of the jet stream relative to the UK.  In a nutshell, we are now experiencing a "Wavy jet" which is keeping things mixed.

At the morning brief, I was pleased to announce some good news from the BGA: John Allan has had his 500km Diamond Distance claim confirmed.  That, together with the Diamond Goal (300km) and Diamond Height (5,000 metres), which had been previously flown from Brentor, John now has the full set and hence has earned his Diamond Badge.  Many congratulations and very well done.

We had a single One Day Course today.  Mark Hammond sat in the morning brief before Scratch briefed him on his One Day Course.

Mike, the Duty Instructor, had four trainees to fly, and Rick helped out and flew two more.

Mike started with Steve Lesson.  A check flight and a go-around launch failure.  We launched Mike Bennett in the K-8 and then Mark Hammond and Scratch.  Today's weather must have been a bit of a shock for Mike, having just returned from some time in sunny Greece.

While launching was underway, the Duty Instructor turned to Steve Lesson and murmured those magic words, "Would you like to try that again, on your own?"  Steve rose to the challenge and re-soloed, after along lay off.  Congratulations and welcome back! 

Many hands were required to do this. 
The bottom of the fuselage of FSD was cleaned, and the main wheel skirt reattached.

The CFI's bête noire, the Fly Navy logo, still looks smart on the fin of FSD. 
 It looks even better the right way up!

The Chairman and I worked on a "hangar project" today.  The further development of our new tow-out gear.  Mebers are getting to grips with the new tail dollies and tow-out bars for the Twin Astirs.  We are working on a second wing wheel.

Today, we turned our focus to the Astir CS77.  It came with tow-out gear, but the tow-out bar was unsuited to our field; the Twin Astir tow-out bars should work.  That involved extending the axle of the tow bar and fitting various spacers, large penny washers, and lots of nuts.  Fortunately, we were able to source all the bits we needed that had to be in M10 rather than the larger M12 size used in the Twin Astir's tail dolly's axle, in-house.  Steve and I were permitted access to DB's inner sanctum; his secret stash of parts.  After much spanner-wielding, we were ready to take the finished item to the launch point and test.  After a bit of adjustment, to allow the jaws of the tow-out bars to fit nicely, we had a workable system.

Today's "Hangar project". The tail dolly for the Astir CS77 

Or did we?  The clips on the tail dolly weren't holding it to the tail boom securely.  After much investigation in became clear that one of the threaded adjusting bolts had a stripped thread.  Back to the hangar where we found an old tail dolly and cannibalised the clips.  It was tested again at the launch point, and the proof of concept and repair were demonstrated by successfully towing the glider back to the west end at the end of flying operations.  More progress.

In addition to Steve Lesson, Mike flew with Robin and progressed the training of new member Ivan and returning temporary member Nick Maidwell. 

Rick continued Lance's training and then conducted three BI training flights with John Allan, with John flying from the rear seat.  The mix of glider types (K-13 and Twin Astir) allowed greater training flexibility.  Steve Fletcher took the last flight with John Smith in a Twin Astir to maintain his recency as an introductory Flight Pilot after having made an earlier one with Dave Archer.

The "Clubhouse project" today was the solar panels.  Steve Lewis arranged for the "Night Owl", Andrew Downing, to visit mid-afternoon.  He brought with him a 5KW solar storage battery and a solar power controller that dwarfed our current one.  Steve Lesson and John Allan will work together to get the solar panels wired up.  All ahead full on the solar project!  The only challenge is whether the floor of the clubhouse will be strong enough to accommodate the not inconsiderable weight of the battery and the solar charger.

The solar panels are itching to be wired up

A happy Michael M-S gets ready for his third flight of the day in the Astir CS77

While Michael M-S was enjoying the exclusive use of the Astir CS77 to progress his solo flights, the K-8 was earning its keep with eight flights made by Mike Bennett, as previously mentioned, Peter, Malcolm, John Osment, John Smith, and David Archer. The longest flight of the day went to Malcolm (13 minutes, but he did take three flights to achieve it), with runners-up John Osment (11 minutes) and David Archer (10 minutes).  Well done all on what was really a day of circuits.

One Day Course candidate Mark Hammond and Scatch prepare to launch

In sum, we had a late start due to the rain showers, but we achieved a lot on the field, progressing training and a re-solo in the resulting 37 flights.  We also made progress off the field.

 Gavin Short