Dartmoor Gliding News–Sunday 19th January 2014

To say that everything went like an ‘un-expected’ difficult day with odd weather conditions in no way gives the full appreciation to those who stepped up and put themselves forward to get the day going and helped in its success.

Only Leith and Don were at the clubhouse when I turned up for breakfast. It looked like it was going to be a slow, no flying day, even though the sun was shining. My thoughts turned to the internal machinating of the prospect of a sunny day of lots of tea, odd jobs, too many snacks and a lecture or two. Then arrived Jerry! The prospects started to get better. Almost immediately after that, Andrew and Mike Swann turned up with another potential new young aviator. And then another youngster turns up with Dad in tow, then Dave and other members.

Variable winds and weather, rainbows and a muddy launch point. Winter flying at it's most challenging

This made three youngsters and a few older ones who were going to be very disappointed if we didn’t attempt getting the site running. After some quiet discussion about who could feasibly do what and no doubt Don doing a lot of inner TEM ( Threat and Error Management ). Strict briefs where given and I as the only person who has a fair amount of winch experience was thrown in at the very deep end winch launching.
Personally I cannot thank Jerry enough for volunteering to assist me on cable retrieve as I went through the testing and working out of the procedures to be used in operating the Winch based upon knowledge gained of other winches many moons ago, and also being a WI at Challock and in the ATC. It is amazing what you have to re-learn. Normally I would do both of these alone to learn and minimise the risks. But after about 6 launches we had it roughly licked. Learning the hard way about the nuances of the ‘braking’ control’s (especially on the right hand drum) meant even though you had the brake on full to start. The torque the motor puts out with the manual direct drive resulted in a few cable mends. I still can see Jerry’s face. I therefore learnt how to use a press again. One word about the winch experience ’Interesting’!

There was a crosswind. Almost every launch the drogue went across the northern fence even when folks tried to lay off. The day was forecast to go NW but that never developed. We even had an easterly that lasted for about 3 minutes.

Having said that we did the task. The two K13s , the Pirat and the K8 where out. And then the day got much easier when Alan and Colin turned up about 1-ish. Allan took over from me at the winch. The weather though closed in rapidly at the end and the sun seemed to just drop over the horizon. Almost every member flew.

For me the important thing was that everyone pulled together in difficult circumstances and the three youngsters were given the flying experience they turned up for, Leith, Ray and the other member’s gained/maintained currency and the society gained by the effort? Clubs like ours must never forget the importance of getting new members in and teaching them how to work safely in a team with everyone else to get the task done. This was well done.

A page of flights gained on an, at first Sunny, then blustery, then cold unpredictable day, with ground fit for wallowing in and text book orographic cloud forming on the far moors reminding me that we are on a hill ourselves. Ultimately everyone’s hard work and team spirit made this a good day.

And for the first time in years as I drove back to Helston in the dark. I recollected the late finishes as an Instructor I did as I was always one of the last away. ‘De ja vu’ certainly.

Tony Dean