DGS News–Wednesday 19th June 2013

Today provided a welcome break in the weather, with sunshine, thermals, shorts, sandals and the inevitable crosswind challenging the skills of winch drivers and pilots alike; many of the latter taking the opportunity to use the stub runway.

We are once again grateful to the early birds who responded to yesterday's rallying call via the Members' Forum yesterday urging everyone to get the kit and field ready early. This set us on the road to achieving 35 launches - which could have been more had there not been a few minor operational glitches. However, with Steve Lewis and Colin Boyd in particular taking time out between flights to focus on launch point efficiency, not too much time was lost and the day proceeded safely and enjoyably. A happy event which occurred mid-morning was the arrival of a delivery of a stock of new winch cable, which - provided we treat it carefully - should help to reduce cable breaks and improve our launch rate.

Early morning at DGS. Driving the sheep into the top field

Weather-wise, after a grey start with low cloud, the sun appeared and some healthy cumulus clouds started to develop, enabling Ged get to the first trial lesson underway and me to help members at the top of the training list to select, sometimes lose, and then regain and use, embryonic thermals. Mike Gadd set off early in the Open Cirrus with South Molton in his sights, but then a wedge of sea air carved its way south from Bideford Bay, leaving cumulus both to the east and west of us, but clear and 'dying' air over the field. Mike scampered back to base, while the rest of us lamented what looked like becoming an early end to our soaring ambitions.

While Ged and Steve Lewis took over the back seat of the K13 (not together of course!), as an act of faith, I ventured into the blue in the Zugvogel, only to discovered that soaring conditions were recycling, eventually resulting in several of us having decent local soaring flights in what became strong and turbulent thermals.

John Bolt.  80 years young and a re-solo.

Today we celebrated a number of 'firsts', including John Bolt's return to solo flight (in the Zug) after a long layoff and his 80th birthday last week; our resident TV personality Jeff Craggs' return to the air after his exploration of the countryside in the Bocian a couple of weeks ago, and Scratch Hitchen's maiden opportunity to exercise his 'family and friends' privileges from the back seat of the K13.

Then, as usual, several newcomers to our sport experienced their first glider flights by taking trial lessons. Today's 'VIP visitors' were Simon Lindfiled, Adrian Pike and  David Fillbrook.

Simon Lindfield

Adrian Fox

David Fillbrook

As the day drew to the close, there was an underlying 'buzz' concerning tomorrow's marathon road trip to Neath, in Wales, by a small team of our more dedicated members to collect the latest additions to our fleet, a K7M and a K8. It's going to be a long journey - and a long day. We wish everyone involved a safe journey - and thank them for their efforts on behalf of their fellow members.

Bob Pirie