The title might be a bit misleading because it was a club day at DGS as well as a staycation expedition day. Who would have thought that taking a staycation would throw up such complications when blogging.
What wasn't complicated however, was the weather. I didn't need to check the forecast. It was very blowy and showery at home when I put the bins out first thing this morning. Mackle the cat was shooting in and out of the front door and zooming round the garden like, well like a cat on speed. He could detect the change in weather and that it might be stormy today.
At the club there was no cooked breakfast as it was a normal club day. Mike Jardine was the Duty Instructor and Steve Fletcher the Introductory Flight Pilot. Yes, as Mackle the cat had sensed, it was blowy and as expected the windsock was horizontal. The wind was down the strip and whilst it might have been possible to fly the strength of the wind was forecast to increase. The Aston Down expeders weren't rigging their gliders and the Wednesday Wavers declined to get the club gliders out of the hangar. Later in the morning the heavy rain and hail showers sealed the deal.
The "DG boys" (Michael M-S and Lance) were busy in the clubhouse going through, and starting to understand, the extensive documentation of their new toy. Their interest in the airworthiness of their glider and understanding of the documentation is praiseworthy. If only other pilot/owners took such interest.
The new Treasurer was busy dealing with expense claims and working with the Membership Secretary on the enrolment of a new member. Yay! Further details anon. The Company Secretary was making preparation for the voting in of a new Director. All this normally goes on behind the scenes, but it was good that members were exposed to it.
When not dealing with membership Neal continued sorting the clubhouse and getting rid of old "stuff" that we no longer needed. Spring cleaning in May!
I took a moment to update my pilot and glider log books. Always worth prioritising when the Chief Flying Instructor is "in da house" before working on the silver height claim for Jamie Young from Saturday. All the evidence was clear he had achieved it by a large margin. Unless Richard Roberts can counter the claim then at 15 years old he is the youngest DGS pilot to gain Silver height (1,000m/3,281ft gain in height). Congratulations, Jamie.
So that left jobs underway on the site. First up, which had been planned a while ago was the annual inspection and ARC of Mike Bennett's Club Libelle, G-DDVM. The trailer was manoeuvred out of the glider rack and then paused before bringing it on to the apron. This allowed space to be made in the hangar by removing the Astir CS77 and K-8, FXB. The later which needed work on its total energy system.
The annual inspection went well with a few minor pickups. However, the Air Speed Indicator on test was found to have a leak. It was so severe that Colin asked me to check with our back-up test equipment; a calibrated ASI and syringe. It confirmed Colin's diagnosis using his electronic test equipment. A replacement ASI will be ordered. A half share (£4,000) is available in this great GRP glider, please see Mike Bennett for details.
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Inspecting, cleaning, and "lightly" regreasing the trailing edge air brakes.
The Port wing is upside down in this photo. |
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| The Starboard wing, the right way up, showing the aileron and trailing edge air brakes in the foreground. The tailplane in its cradle awaits inspection |
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| The fuselage and trailer when the sun came out and made the work light superfluous |
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| A wet apron after another heavy rain shower |
What wasn't visible was the work that was going on in the Motor Transport hangar. On Tuesday the tractor with the winch wouldn't start. After much noisy banging and grinding the culprit was the starter motor. However, when opened up it was a mess. It was well beyond a simple clean up of the rotor commutators and brushes. After living on Dartmoor for many years it was scrap! The directors authorised the purchase of a replacement.
After his recent tour de force on the centre and cross tracks the Site Manager surveyed the east end with a view to establishing a glider paddock (where gliders could be let rigged overnight) for the summer months utilising the now redundant hurdle fence panels.
The recent test flight of the K-8, FXB threw up some instrumentation problems that needed sorting. Previous testing revealed a mechanical variometer working incorrectly and leaks in the Total Energy system. John Allan got stuck in to the faultfinding.
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Tailplane removed and a small trestle to raise the fin to John's height,
while DB looks on.
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The test gear allowed the leak to be narrowed down to the fin tubing,
fin connections, or perhaps but unusually the Total Energy probe itself. |
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| A high-powered maintenance team (Chairman, Deputy Chief Flying Instructor, and a Flight Instructor) refit the tailplane after the work was complete (I just greased the mounting spigots!) |
The rudder will go back on after the access hole made at the rear of the fin is made good with an aviation plywood patch fixed with Aerodux glue.
After lunch, I coerced the "DG Boys" to install the remote speaker for the Tasman Variometer in the rear of the Twin Astir 1, DSL. This was designed to be a training exercise for them to get used to working on gliders before they laid hands, apart from with a polishing cloth, on theirs. They did a good job and Mike Jardine was pleased with the results (he had previously opined that the audio tone from the variometer in the front panel wasn't audible in the rear). Lance also drafted the Form 205 for Colin's approval. Great work guys.
After the pundits studied the weather forecast for Thursday the CFI made the call "No flying tomorrow". To compound my disappointment I received a message from home that I had received a Penalty Charge Notice. Southampton City Council's notorious "Bus Gate" scheme had claimed another victim. My pain was lessened slightly when I read that Southampton City Council had collected £160,000 in fines from the "Bus Gate" whilst making the city moredifficult to navigate. So I wasn't the only one confused by the signage. My nephew's wedding at the weekend was great, but I won't be going back to Southampton any time soon. Airspace is easier to understand than Southampton City Council's traffic measures.
Gavin Short
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