Sunday 30th January 2010

With the Met Office predicting a surface wind of 030 at 6kts levels of anticipation were high that the wave would now set in.  Unpacking the hangar, the talk was of how low the temperatures had been on the way to the airfield: variously -2⁰C in Cornwall, -4⁰C locally at the airfield and -6⁰C in Tavistock.  Coming after a mild week in which the airfield had thawed, these low temperatures had caused the mud to freeze up in the wheel boxes of the gliders.  Now frozen wheel boxes can be enough to cause some gliding sites to shut down operations altogether.  But not so the men and women of Dartmoor who, after 30 minutes of work with paint scrapers and a veritable Mt Etna of a hair dryer, had the all of the fleet’s available glider on line and ready to ride the wave.  
 
CFI Don Puttock decided to go on a sniffer, (something apparently he used to do in the margins of competitions), by giving Heather Horswill a valedictory flight in thanks for all her hard work in support of the club.

Heather Horswill waiting to be launched for her valedictory flight

 The wind, which had hovered tantalisingly about 010-020, backed to the north.  They returned with nothing on the scent. And so it remained; with clear, blue sky, and a steady, light northerly strangling all hope of wave

Don, ever the exponent of ‘expectation management’, switched targets from ‘achievement’ to ‘development’.  Which proved to be remarkably successful.  On the ground, Mike Keller took and passed the Bronze C theoretical exam, following which he was briefed and graduated from the K-8 to the K-6.  Then, after careful tuition with Ged Nevisky, Jacob Knight (17) and Alan Carter converted onto the Zugvogel, it’s light wing loading winning broad grins and a thumbs up from Alan, who achieved the flight of the day.  The light wind conditions also allowed Nigel Williamson to go solo in his winch driver training, under Alan Ballard’s tutelage, and enabled Sandra Butterly to reacquaint herself with her old friend,  the K-8.

Plymouth Sound (on the horizon) from 1100f

So a day which promised great heights was transformed into a day of great progress, in all sorts of other directions.  Finally, all hands turned to in de-rigging K-13 BVB ready for its ARC inspection on Monday.  Then, like hobbits in the Shire, it was time to  retire to the clubhouse to smoke (metaphorical) pipes and exchange tales of even greater achievement (although probably only in exaggeration!)
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The Shire (note smoke rising from chimney..!)  The hangar and clubhouse at dusk

 Martin Cropper